In his paranoically-titled column, “Worship the state, or else” (Dec. 3), Cal Thomas saluted the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that struck down New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order imposing attendance limits on places of worship in COVID-19 hot spots.
What Thomas sees in such orders is creeping totalitarianism, which, if left unchecked, will inevitably lead to the dethroning of his triune God and the deifying of the state, arrogating to itself total jurisdiction over public worship.
Why, he asks, do so many Americans put faith in government above faith in God? The “false gods” of ancient peoples couldn’t answer their prayers; likewise, the state is incapable of taking the place of what he regards as the one, true, ever-provident, prayer-answering God.
Thomas, an ardent evangelical, loves to talk faith; but it’s easy to see how far his own falls short.
Jesus is claimed to have promised — what is arguably the Gospels’ number one elephant in the room — that baptized believers would be supernaturally empowered to cast out devils, speak in tongues, handle deadly serpents, drink poison without harm and heal the sick by laying hands on them (Mark 16: 17-18).
As regards miraculous healing, it begs to be asked: When has it been reported, even once, that Christians have laid prayerful hands on COVID-19 victims and healed them instantly, then and there?
Our faith-trumpeting Mr. Thomas, for one, has yet to work that wonder.
William LaRochelle, Lewiston
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