I thought yesterday of that much-abused comment of St Paul to the Thessalonians, to 'avoid even the appearance (or form [εἴδους]) of evil.' so much of life in public nowadays involves this oft-misunderstood instruction, insofar as people go so out of their way to make sure they appear compliant and 'woke' no matter what is really in their hearts and more private behaviour. St Paul most assuredly did not mean we should give in to the crowd's hysterical notion of what's evil; he was speaking much more directly about appearance of real evil, not counselling us to give in to silly moral prejudices and fads.
This came to mind because my household and I took a walk with another household - shocking!
When we met up in a country field outside of town, with just a few other walkers in sight, the dad of that house told me, the dad of our house, that he needed to walk with just one or two of us, not our whole group plus his household, because he wouldn't want to be seen in a configuration that looked disobedient to the rules. Not that he didn't want to walk with us all, and not that he thought it was wrong; he didn't. He wanted us to break into subgroups for the walk, and why? He wanted to avoid the appearance of what others call evil, because he thought it might jeopardise his job if we crossed paths with a colleague, and because that hypothetical colleague might tell the boss...
Such fear!
The climate of fear is manufactured, but it truly is felt. It now has a life and culture of its own, a corrosive culture of petty puritanism and deceits, prideful doings, shameful hidings, prideful abstentions, gossiping and informing, unhinged worries and distant, nonparticipant, superstitious hoping. It's a new religion taking form, evil and pagan.
A suffocating blanket of a new and hopeless puritanical religion is laid over even the little things we dare freely to do, stifling us.
I reject it.
Hold your nerve everyone! Let's not give in to the corrosion. Let's act with hearts of wisdom, hospitality, and love, always and never more than right now!
Avoid even the appearance of the real evil, which is membership in this new pharisaical Covid cult.
