COVID-19, Flat Earth, and a Call for Science-based Civil Discussion

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Hank Unplugged podcast, reflects on recent interaction between Senator Rand Paul and Xavier Becerra, President Biden’s Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. As Sen. Paul points out in the interchange, Sec. Becerra dubbed him, Jonathan Isaac (who plays for the Orlando Magic), and some hundred million Americans who have natural immunity against COVID-19—“flat Earthers.” Reality is that Sen. Paul, Isaac, and the millions of Americans who have looked at the science and determined that antibodies resulting from having contracted COVID-19 produce significant immunity (as is the case with measles and smallpox) are anything but obscurantists lacking mental acumen and reasoning skills. To call someone a “flat Earther” is no small slight. Andrew Dickson White, founder of Cornell University, once did the same. He decried what he called the regrettable reality that two hundred years after Ferdinand Magellan had empirically proved that the Earth was round, Christian fundamentalists persisted in perpetuating flat-Earth mythology. Like Sec. Becerra, it was White’s contention that people like Sen. Paul and Isaac were unable or unwilling to consider the facts. Thus, they must be crushed under the full weight of government mandates and penalties, until they cry uncle (Uncle Sam). What Sec. Becerra must surely know, however, is that his use of the flat-Earth moniker is pure propaganda! Columbus, of course, knew full well that unanimous scholarly opinion from Augustine to Aquinas pronounced the Earth spherical. And far from being flat Earthers, as Sec. Becerra recklessly demeans them, Sen. Paul, Isaac, and millions of other Americans are well aware of the reality that a lunar eclipse is not produced by a flat Earth. It is high time that name calling is replaced by a civil, reason- and science-based national discussion on whether natural immunity is indeed as good or better than present vaccines. Or, for that matter, whether the combination of natural immunity and vaccine immunity surpasses one or the other or both.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Hank Hennigraph, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Hank Unplug podcast with another Hank Unplug short.
0:24.1	And I have to sort of apologize at the very beginning because this short has to do with
0:33.0	a video that a good friend of mine sent to me, and I'm sort of speaking in the heat of the
0:43.9	moment. It's a video in which Senator Rand Paul is questioning Javier Becerra.
0:57.0	Javier Becerra is President Joe Biden's top human services official
1:02.0	as the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
1:07.0	And so in this video, Senator Rand Paul is pointing out that Bacera has dubbed him, others like Jonathan Isaac and some hundred million Americans who have natural immunity against COVID-19,
1:31.3	he's dubbing them flat earthers.
1:34.3	Now, as unbelievable as it might seem in an age of scientific enlightenment,
1:41.3	there are people today who genuinely cling to the idea of a flat
1:49.2	earth. So you can call them flat earthers. But Senator Rand Paul, Jonathan Isaac, who by the way
1:59.3	plays for the Orlando Magic, and millions of Americans who have looked at the science and determined that antibodies which result from having contracted COVID produce a significant antidote, as in the case with measles and smallpox, are anything but obscurantists lacking mental acumen and reasoning skills.
2:24.7	To call someone a flat earther is no small slight.
2:30.6	You might think historically to the reality that Andrew Dixon White, who was the founder of Cornell University, did that very thing.
2:43.4	He decried what he called regrettable reality that 200 years after Ferdinand Magellan had empirically proved that the earth was
2:54.2	around Christian fundamentals, they just persisted in perpetuating flat earth mythology.
3:02.0	Like Bacera, it was his contention that men like, well, like Jonathan Isaac, were unable or unwilling to consider the facts.
3:18.0	And therefore, from his perspective, they have to be crushed, crushed under the full weight of government mandates and penalties until
3:25.6	they cry uncle, in this case, Uncle San.
3:31.5	What the Sarah must surely know, however, is that his use of the moniker flat earth is pure propaganda.
3:43.5	Even now some of you listening to this Hank Unplug Short can remember exactly where they were
3:48.7	when they first heard the tale of Columbus's raw courage in in face of mutinous sailors
	...

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