THE FACE OF HEALTH? OR NOT?

Not the billboard referred to in blog, but same message.

 One thing that irked me during the social distancing/mask mandate era: There was a billboard on the I-465 titled "The Face of Health", with a picture of a nurse wearing a mask.

Hold on to your horses. Probably too late to avoid a Facebook notification of where to go to find the facts of the mask. This is not meant to make a statement one way or the other of the value of masks.

Rather, my focus is on the blurb. No, a masked face is not the face of health. Those who say so either don't know what health looks like or they are deliberately telling a lie to get the results they want.

Here's the obvious: if things are healthy, masks are not needed.

If the masks are able to protect a healthy person from COVID19, then the masked face is a face that needs their health protected. If, however, a mask works solely to keep the infected from infecting the healthy, then the masked face is the face of UNhealth.

Again, this is not a critique of wearing masks. I can see the rationale of it protecting you and others. In fact, mask wearing may help put someone else at ease, and that is a good thing. 

However, to me that billboard was saying evidence of a lack of health was what health looked like.

So if I'm not arguing against masks, why write this blog? Is it just letting steam of at a time where that steam has passed its prime?

No, there is Scripture that this makes me think of. And that verse is Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV):

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who set darkness for light and light for darkness, who set bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 

Okay. The billboard I saw is not the best example of that verse. I cringed when I read Christians saying a true Christian would not wear a mask, just as I cringe with the "Face of health" billboard and the mandates. But it still is an illustration of calling something the opposite of what it is.

Unfortunately, we can find better illustrations. Yes, I can find them and mention them. But then, why should I when you can give examples yourself. 

The reality is we need to realize we serve a righteous, holy God. He dictates what truth is, and plan A is to agree with Him. To disagree with Him is plan C. What's plan B? To realize plan A needs to work and if someone suggests plan C is an alternative, destroy plan C before someone makes the foolish mistake of trying the failed idea.

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN OTTE

 

I have yet to interview Allistair MacLean or Agatha Christy. Possibly because they exited from the earth's scene before I started doing author interviews. However, when I get a chance to interview on of my favorite authors, it always turns out to be a blessing, and this interview with John Otte (pronounced Ought-Tee) is an example.

I'll admit - if I ever get my murder-at-an-apologetics-conference-mystery published, John would be high on the list of people I'd like to write a blurb. One reason is because he's a very good author. The other is he's a Lutheran minister. I've had the privilege of reading both his novels and his theological non-fiction.

*        *        *   

JR: You are one of those writers that I'm not sure which I admire more: your night job or your day job (Lutheran minister). How much overlap is there between these two ministries? How does one strengthen or challenge the other?

JO: I’d say there’s a fair amount of overlap between the two. In terms of how being a pastor (specifically a Lutheran one) informs my novel writing, since I’ve primarily written Christian fiction, I definitely bring my “theological baggage” along with me in writing those stories. There are a surprising number of Lutherans in Christian speculative fiction specifically and Christian fiction in general, but we have a unique “flavor” to our theology that can serve as a counterpoint to the prevailing viewpoints that you find in Christian fiction. It’s not that I set out to layer in Lutheran stuff, it’s just a part of me and my worldview so it’s naturally going to emerge.

As for how the crossover flows in the opposite direction, members of my congregations, both past and present, will tell you that I’m an inveterate storyteller. If I can put a story in a sermon or Bible study, I’m going to. And being a writer means that I’m going to show a little more care in telling those stories, especially if it’s one that I’ve made up.

JR: While not the first novel you wrote, your first published fiction is the Failstate trilogy (also including a pair of e-book novellas). I absolutely loved that series, but I also found that the final one brought up some theological questions concerning parallel universes. What inspired that series?

JO: I didn’t originally plan for that to be a trilogy at all. I wrote the first book as a stand-alone novel. But I was certainly open to writing more. The first book was inspired by a situation at a writers conference where I felt very much like Failstate in the first novel: the loser outsider who felt that life should be treating him better, envious of other people’s successes. As I was processing my experience, my wife suggested that I should write a superhero story for our oldest boy (he was about three or four at the time, if memory serves). Everything just kind of gelled and the result was Failstate.

As for the rest of the trilogy, I originally pitched three other books with the middle two being a slow burn to what would eventually be known as Failstate: Nemesis. My publisher at the time wasn’t impressed with what I came up with for books two and three and suggested we condense it down into one. So I had to cherry pick the details that had to be in there and invent a story that they could be included in. My agent suggested including zombies. And thus Failstate: Legends came to be.

JR: You also have a two novels (I don't know if it should be
considered a series) dealing with a universe ruled by the Ministrix and the Praesidium. (Numb, by the way, was the above mentioned first novel; The Hive was written afterward.) How far are we from that basic concept in our society? What problems does our divided society face and what answers are there?

JO: I fear that we’re getting closer and closer to it each day. I see many Christians who are heeding the siren call to political power and influence, especially as our place as the center of Western society has slipped in recent years. That makes us nervous and uncomfortable and, when people get anxious, they tend to do whatever they can to find stability and security. While I’d like to think that most Christians wouldn’t fall for the Ministrix’s pitch, I worry that a surprising number might. And while I don’t think many people would be satisfied with the completely antireligious state of the Praesidium, I fear that parts of our society may be inching in that direction as well.

I’m no prophet, so it’s hard for me to diagnose the division and chart a course forward. I would say, though, that the best solution for Christians is to remember two things: our privileged position in society is an aberration and not intentional. We were always meant to be outsiders and countercultural. If the world is shifting away from us, that’s fine. We remain what God calls us to be: salt and light.

JR: A series you wrote that I enjoyed as much was a non-fiction blog titled the Lutheran Difference. Could you tell us about that? 

JO: Like I said earlier, I know that in certain pockets of American Christianity, Lutheranism is kind of a mystery. People know who Martin Luther is and they acknowledge his contribution to the Protestant Reformation. But then they try to lump us into groups that we don’t fit in, such as Protestant (technically, we’re not) or Calvinist (no way) or Arminian (the fact that I had to look this up to make sure I spelled it correctly should tell you how well we fit in this group also). We don’t hold to what many would consider “typical” American Christianity’s beliefs about conversion or baptism or communion or any of that stuff.

So I figured that, since I’m in sort of a unique position being a Lutheran pastor on the one hand and a Christian author on the other, that gave me a unique opportunity to share a little of who we are and the theology that shaped me and continues to shape us. My intention wasn’t to argue with anyone or try to convince them to become Lutheran. I just know that there’s a rich diversity of theological thoughts and traditions; it’s always helpful to understand them to enrich your own faith or, at the very least, understand where people are coming from.

JR: Thank you for your time, John, and may the Lord Jesus Christ richly bless your ministries.

JO: May the Lord bless you as well! This was great!

 

Reader, have you seen any situations where fiction and theology blend?