Coronavirus, chaos and compassion

By Ryan Bomberger, Exclusive Columnist Thursday, March 19, 2020

Ryan Bomberger is the co-founder of The Radiance Foundation.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far from our nation’s overreaction to COVID-19, it’s that human life is worth protecting…well, sometimes. I marvel at the extraordinary measures taken and money spent to keep people from harm, especially the most vulnerable, during this global coronavirus response. I’m amazed at all of the rhetoric about caring for people and keeping one another safe. Of course, fully agree with the desire to protect human life and the self-sacrifice required to do that. Although, that so-called “self-sacrifice” is now government mandated.

On the Radiance Foundation’s social media pages, we’re constantly being challenged with the words “Well, if you’re really pro-life, you would want to do whatever is necessary to save other lives from the coronavirus.” First of all, “pro-life” is a term diluted to the point of near meaninglessness by those who aren’t actually pro-life. Secondly, as an actual pro-lifer and a factivist, I’m passionate about wanting to bring context and clarity to issues. According to Italy’s Higher Institute of Health, the average age of those who die from the coronavirus is 80 years. Here in the United States, the coronavirus has resulted in 97 deaths and about 9,415 confirmed cases. Since October, however, 22,000-55,000 individuals here in the United States have lost their lives to another pandemic—the flu. Why aren’t people challenging everyone to be so “pro-life” and socially distance themselves over these tragic losses of life?

More than 32,000 people are killed in automobile accidents in the U.S. every year, with another 2 million who suffer injuries. Does the government ban use of all cars? This is the equivalent of the coronavirus response.

In a day and age where everything is politicized, we can’t be so easily manipulated by those who have no love for the truth. The duplicitous rhetoric we hear about human worth cannot distract us from wanting to know and understand what is really going on.

Panic is always dependence on the wrong source.

Human life is always worth protecting, especially the most vulnerable…like those sheltered in what should be the safest place on earth—the mother’s womb.

Imagine, for a moment, if the Church took a coronavirus approach to protecting the most vulnerable from the completely avoidable pandemic of abortion that kills over 40,000,000 truly defenseless human beings every year around the world--human beings who are sheltered in what should be the safest place on earth. That's over 80x the median estimate of annual deaths--500,000--from all strains of flu worldwide. Another way to see this devastation...there are an estimated 110,000+ cases of lives needlessly destroyed by the plague of abortion every...single...day. Imagine if the government felt what Martin Luther King Jr. called the "fierce urgency of now" to end the spread of violence against those completely powerless to stop it.

We need to practice social distancing, in and out of crisis, from an industry that daily destroys thousands of those made in the image of God. Proving the insanity of politicization, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), just decreed that abortion—an elective procedure—isn’t really elective but an “essential” part of healthcare. So, while the world is going to extremes to save vulnerable human lives, ACOG is promoting fake health and demanding that abortionists keep on killing.

A worldview of compassion rejects the fear-du-jour. This shelter-in-place environment we’re now forced to live in is, at least, giving us more time to reflect. As Christians, we must remember that we have to face any uncertainty in a crisis with certainty in Christ. God specializes in crisis management.

It shouldn’t take a global pandemic to value every human life, whether young or old, able or disabled, planned or unplanned. When the coronavirus fades like the H1N1 and Zika scares, we’re still in a crisis of inaction. We need to ask ourselves: Are we more motivated by doomsday fear than by our daily faith to care for the least of these?

Ryan Bomberger is the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation. He is happily married to his best friend, Bethany, who is the Executive Director of Radiance. They are adoptive parents with four awesome kiddos. Ryan is an Emmy Award-winning creative professional, factivist, international public speaker and author of NOT EQUAL: CIVIL RIGHTS GONE WRONG. He loves illuminating that every human life has purpose.