Our rebellion consisted of gathering outside to sing Christmas carols by candlelight in a parking lot of our local mall. Hundreds of grateful, joyful people came together, excited for the chance to see smiling faces, hear thankful singing voices, and give praise to God. Unfortunately, thanks to a news helicopter, three drones, several TMZ foot soldiers, and a couple of COVID-Karens with their car horns, we have become infamous. You may have heard of the TV show, “The Masked Singer,” which I hear is all the rage. In the past couple of weeks, the press has affectionately dubbed me as “The Unmasked Singer,” triggering a different kind of rage.
Despite the media’s slander, our first gathering drew 500 joyful carolers at a shopping center. The very next weekend, 1,000 carolers lifted their voices in unison in a parking lot outside a local movie theater. It came just in time. Singing is good for the soul, especially after ten months of financially, emotionally, and physically devastating lockdowns.
But then the Grinches started grinching. The press, save a few, scurried to label us with nasty names, to question the sincerity of our faith, and to accuse us of being murderous villains intent on spreading COVID-19.
Seriously?
I am certainly no Scrooge. I love Christmas. What’s more, I love my neighbors, I love my country, and I love God. I also know that I am not a health expert, so before I went singing, I looked to professors of medicine, epidemiologists and bio-statisticians — such as Dr. Kulldorff from Harvard University, Dr. Gupta from Oxford University, and Dr. Wittkowski from Rockefeller University — who have been shouting from the rooftops that the current “mask up and lock down” policies may be causing more mental and physical harm than the virus itself.
“Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health,” said the authors of The Great Barrington Declaration, which has been signed by nearly 50,000 medical experts from across the globe. These experts recommend that “adopting measures to protect the vulnerable should be the central aim of public health responses to COVID-19,” while also emphasizing that “those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal.”
In other words, lockdowns are devastating, the vulnerable (elderly and unhealthy) should be protected, and everyone else should go back to living their lives as normal. When I consider the current data which suggests that COVID-19 has a very low mortality rate, that strategy made sense to me when organizing these outdoor caroling events.
Just as there was no room at the inn for Joseph and Mary when Jesus was to be born, we discovered that on the day of our most recent caroling event, someone had threatened the owner of the property where our third singing celebration was due to take place. Because of that threat, the space was no longer made available to us. Determined not to let the Grinch steal Christmas, we quickly re-grouped, re-organized and gathered again that night, back outside our local mall where our caroling first began — but this time with a stage, Christmas lights hung on trees, lyric sheets, and even an espresso bar.
It’s important to acknowledge that Christmas caroling without masks does pose a risk. You might contract a cold, the flu, the Chinese coronavirus, or dozens of other airborne diseases. It’s also important to acknowledge that if you do catch COVID-19 and are not immunocompromised or elderly, you have an excellent chance of recovering fully.
Rather than embracing lockdowns, we should remember that we are in charge of our health and wellbeing, not the government. If you do join one of our gatherings, there is a good chance that you will be yelled at by a COVID-Karen and slandered in the press as “careless, “heartless,” and “defiant.” Instead, they should remember the importance of a cost-benefit analysis, while we weigh the risks and the rewards of Christmas caroling with our neighbors during the most wonderful time of the year.
We should also remember that while singing Christmas songs under a starry sky and holding candle lights to illuminate our copies of the U.S. Constitution, you may also be exposed to a feeling of hope, a highly contagious agent known to make your heart swell, your fears diminish, and compel you to love your neighbors as yourself.
Related: As Christmas Approaches, Actor Kirk Cameron Continues ‘Caroling Protests’ Against COVID-19 Orders
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.