Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to ask you, how difficult is it to deprogram someone who has been initiated into the COVID cults? First off, we might say, well, it ain't easy, and it isn't. A vast majority of Americans have come under the manipulative influence of COVID con men.

And helping them out is as difficult as bringing a Mooney out of his Mooneyism or a Scientologist out of his Scientology. Cult programming is very effective in the hands of a skilled cult groomer. And ours at the CDC and the National Institute of Health are nothing else if not skilled cult groomers. They certainly are not skilled doctors. Dr. Anthony Fauci has never had a private practice, nor has he treated a single patient in his entire life.

Rather, he has been a government bureaucrat since he began his career in 1985. Fauci has worked his entire career in government agencies, catering to big pharma, following the money on drug patents and UN schemes to make money off of the misfortunes of the poor of the third world. And this assessment has been abundantly demonstrated over the course of the COVID crisis, too. Fauci has been wrong on everything. The number of deaths, for example, 220,000, a little over this, rather than two and a half million.

Or he's been wrong on the lockdowns. There's been more deaths from the lockdowns than the disease. And of course, treatments, too. He's pushing vaccines off of which he'll make money, rather than building healthy immune systems. Oh, dear listener.

But what he has been effective at doing is initiating us into a cult, the COVID cult. Now, last week, I covered in some detail the three stages of cultic initiation that was first clearly articulated by Dr. Arnold Van Gennep. He did this in 1960 in his book, The Rites of Passage. And if you listened last week, you may remember those three stages. The first one was separation, or what we know as social distancing.

That is, taking you away from those that you love, taking you away from your social network, from that network of support and love and care and guardianship, right? And then marginalization. That's the second stage in Dr. Van Gennep's Rites of Passage. Marginalization. That is, they marginalize you.

What we call lockdown or shelter in place or isolation, where you are very stressfully taken away from your day-to-day routine, from your life cycles, from those things that make of your life a regular pattern. And they disrupt that. They disintegrate that. It's very threatening, too. This is the stage at which many commit suicide, separation, and marginalization.

Once they've broken you down, then the cultist comes to stage three, which Dr. Van Gennep characterizes as aggregation. Once they've broken you in pieces, they aggregate you into a whole. They aggregate you into the image of the cult, or what we call the new normal. That's precisely what your cultic handlers have done to you, Dr. Fauci. They have given you a new normal, and you've been ushered into this.

You have been inculcated into this. Oh, at this kind of thing, separation, marginalization, and then aggregation, Dr. Fauci and his fellow cult gurus have been amazingly successful. Only they've called it social distancing, isolation, and the new normal. Oh, dear listener, how do you know whether you are a successfully initiated COVID cult member? Oh, you don't have to be aware.

You may say, oh, I'm not. This is ridiculous, Pastor. I'm not part of a cult. No. Well, you don't have to be aware of your initiation.

You do not have to give your consent to cultic initiation. It can be done very successfully as long as the initiate passes through the required steps. That's important. In fact, some cult groomers consider it a plus if the initiate is completely unaware that he or she is undergoing a specific step-by-step initiation. And as well, dear listener, once a person passes through the grueling gauntlet of cult initiation, and whether you do this consciously or unconsciously, it's almost impossible to get you back.

Once you've undergone this traumatic, systematic initiation, you have undergone an intense, life-changing experience. And like the mythic Ulysses, it is a death-defying odyssey to return home. Very few people do. It means renouncing all that one has become. You have to renounce your new self.

You have to renounce the new normal in order to go back. And that's traumatic. The human psyche just doesn't want to do that. And so you remain in your new normal. You may be a COVID cultist, dear listener.

I want you to be patient with me here on these eight things. I'm going to take a page from Jeff Foxworthy. You may remember he made a fortune and became a real comic hero with his, you may be a redneck if, well, you may be a COVID cultist if you look in the rear view mirror while driving. And suddenly you realize that you're wearing your mask, even though you're riding alone in your car. But you keep it on anyway.

Oh, you may be a real COVID cultist if you do that. You may also be a real COVID cultist if you feel a rising sense of panic when you realize that someone has inadvertently come within five feet of you, transgressing the six foot distancing rule, and you reach for your pepper spray just in case he gets any closer. Oh, you are a real COVID cultist if you respond like this. You may also be a COVID cultist if you wait breathlessly every night at the TV as it covers 24-7 around the clock the COVID crisis.

And you're feeling a sense of calm and reassurance when you see St. Anthony come on the screen to pontificate about some new obscure detail or nuance of the virus. And you think, I really feel safe now. Oh, dear listener, you may be a COVID cultist if you believe that the virus is killing millions of people and that every word that the mainstream media says about it is true. And that by staying home until there's a vaccine, you feel really, really safe, right?

Oh, you may be a COVID cultist if you wake up one day and realize in a rare moment of lucidity that six months of your life have gone by under lockdown and fear and emptiness, and you feel like a caged gerbil, but you shake it off and you say, it was worth it. I feel safe. Ah, dear listener, you may be indeed a COVID cultist if you know that more people have died as a result of the lockdown than we'll ever die of the China virus. And this is true. Oh, this is true.

So much evidence of this. I just refer you to the City Journal, and that was published the issue on July 9th of 2020, written by Joel Zinberg, and he entitles his article Death by Policy from the City Journal. And he says, and I quote, the five states with the most COVID-19 deaths from March through April, and he gives those states as Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, these five states experienced large proportional increases in deaths from non-respiratory underlying causes.

And they include, listen to this, a 96% increase in diabetes deaths, an 89% increase in heart disease deaths, a 64% increase in deaths from Alzheimer's, and then a 35% increase in cerebrovascular disease, deaths from cerebrovascular disease, 35% increase over this period of time. Oh, and yet, even though deaths from other things like these have increased way over the China virus deaths from the lockdown, and you're all right with this, and yet you say, oh, well, it was worth it. You cannot be anything but a COVID cultist, if that's how you feel.

You may be a COVID cultist if you wonder why everyone isn't as careful as you are by wearing masks and gloves and washing everything and hand sanitizer, and you're social distancing, you're staying at home, except maybe to buy groceries, and you remind everyone around you of your responsibilities, right? Even if your name isn't Karen. You may be a COVID cultist if you act this way.

You may be a COVID cultist if you think everyone who doesn't wear a mask is a reckless, uncivilized Neanderthal who doesn't care about his fellow human beings and is actually threatening the health and well-being of you and everyone around you by not wearing a mask, and you call the police. Oh, you may indeed be a COVID cultist, even though the CDC website itself concludes their article. I urge you to look this up. The article on the website called Interim Guidance for the Use of Masks to Control Seasonal Influenza Virus Transmission, and they conclude with this disclaimer.

They say no recommendation can be made at this time for mask use in the community by asymptomatic persons, including those at high risk for complications to prevent exposure to influenza viruses, unquote. Dear listener, frankly, there is little hope for such a one as you, if you indeed think this way and behave this way. You are a fervent, committed disciple of St. Anthony in the COVID cult. No one in this category of cultists will ever be redeemed. You're hopeless.

This state of heart and mind is aptly termed brainwashing. You are brainwashed, if you indeed think this way. Oh, one of my favorite research websites called Psychology has an extensive article on brainwashing, and they define brainwashing as, and I quote, brainwashing is a term that was adopted by the press to describe the indoctrination of U.S. prisoners of war during the Korean War. Social scientists now recognize brainwashing as a form of severe indoctrination, marked by physical and psychological stress, intense social pressure, and a variety of persuasion techniques. What does that sound like, dear listener?

And they conclude by saying, this form of intense indoctrination usually promotes some particular form of political or religious doctrine. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Oh, a political doctrine is being promoted in the coronavirus pandemic scare. And they conclude by saying, often entailing costly sacrifices by adherents. That's precisely what's going on.

And as we sacrifice our country on behalf of the COVID cult, first of all, observe with me, the severe stress Americans are undergoing. Number one is the the severe stress. All of America has been put under severe stress, haven't we? All of America has been put under severe stress, emotional and physical stress due to the fear of an unseen virus whose infection and death rates have been cynically manipulated and sensationalized in order to control us. Fear, long been acknowledged.

Fear is one of the most effective means of control and has been used for centuries to manipulate human behavior. It's being used today. Alarmists try to control us with fear by sensationalizing, for example, cases. Ah, how have you heard in the news recently? Oh, the uptick of cases, which go up precisely because testing has increased.

Oh, but even the cases are an illusion because the tests themselves are notoriously unreliable. The ubiquitous measure for detecting the COVID-19 virus is the PCR test, that is the polymerase chain reaction, the polymerase chain reaction, PCR test. Now, Dr. Nick Delgado in the medical website, the Delgado Protocol, he says this about the PCR test, Dr. Nick Delgado. He says, and I quote, PCR was invented by Kerry Mullis in 1985. And parenthetically, he won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for this test because it was so significant.

He says, the PCR was invented by Kerry Mullis in 1985, but it was not invented with the purpose of detecting disease. Its primary intended applications included biomedical research and criminal forensics. It is a needle in a haystack technology that can be extremely deceptive in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. And the inventor himself argued against using PCR as a diagnostic tool for infections. Oh, dear listener, this is exactly what the very inventor himself, Kerry Mullis said, it's not meant for medical use.

And then Dr. Delgado goes on to a quote, Dr. David Raznick, who was a biochemist and a protease developer. That is, this is in his wheelhouse. This is the stuff he deals with. And Dr. Raznick says, and I quote, I'm skeptical that a PCR test is ever true. It's a great scientific research tool.

It's a horrible tool for clinical medicine, unquote. Oh, but yet it's being used across the board, isn't it? So unreliable is the PCR test in medical diagnoses that up to 50% of the test, when they are scrutinized, they are false positives. And when administered to asymptomatic people, up to 80% of the tests come up false positives. Yet the chicken little mainstream media right here in Idaho Falls, the chicken little mainstream media run around attempting to panic us into another disastrous lockdown by screaming, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, because cases are going up.

What a ruse. You and I are being manipulated by fear of an unseen enemy into cultic behaviors. The severe stress that has subjected us to this has had disastrous consequences, too, for our economy, our culture, the very fabric we have as a people. And it's also reflected in the second symptom of brainwashing. Yes, there is a second symptom of brainwashing, and that is intense social pressure.

Intense social pressure. Are you feeling it yet, dear listener? The intense social pressure? The CDC, quite frankly, has war-gamed how to bring Americans into compliance, and they have found intense social pressure to be one of the most effective means to accomplish these ends. People don't want to be seen as being counterproductive or dangerous to the public good in a time of crisis and threats to life, do they?

In times when the well-being of the whole community hangs in the balance, even one uncooperative member can pose a threat to the whole. No one wants to be that one dangerous jerk, do they? And so, even though you're not convinced of a mask's effectiveness, and that's a good impulse, that's a good instinct, because they are not effective. And I refer you to my lecture last week, where I demonstrated from the science that masks are not effective.

And even though you may be persuaded of this, or you may doubt their effectiveness, nevertheless, you strap on your face diaper as you're walking into Winco, so that you won't stand out, and you'll show that you're a part of the team, and you won't invoke the displeasure of the Karens who walk among us, and you won't have them, then, enforce the abysmal ignorance of the mark of the medical beast, that is, the great mask of compliance, the true sign of the COVID cult. But it works, doesn't it? Intense social pressure works. No one has done their homework to see whether masks are effective at stopping viral infections.

Anybody who wears a mask hasn't done their homework, much less doing their homework to see whether they might not indeed be counterproductive to one's health by, for example, inhibiting oxygen intake. That's my wife's situation. When she wears a mask, she gets headaches, or nobody has done their homework to see whether they might be counterproductive in creating a virtual petri dish of other biological infections, which masks do. Oh, dear listener. In fact, it has been demonstrated that one of the major killers in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 was the very masks worn, as today, right?

Masks are worn today with the same effect to ostensibly protect against the virus. But these same masks unintentionally killed thousands precisely because they created a culture in the mask of other infectious diseases. Oh, but dear listener, reason goes a beggar, doesn't it? When the powerful force of intense social pressure is administered culture-wide. People stop thinking.

People stop reasoning. People stop investigating and researching. But rather, they put their minds on cruise control. It must be true. You know, this disease and its effects and the cases and the mask and all of it must be true.

Everyone else is doing it, aren't they? Can a million people be wrong? Dear listener, can a million people be wrong? Look how many people voted for Biden, for Joe Biden, and tell me a million people can't be wrong. Or they say, and I hear this and see this around me all the time, I just don't want the hassle, right?

I have enough trouble in my life without bringing down a lot of unnecessary negativity on me by not wearing a mask, even though, you know, it's wrong. Or I heard one person say, I heard one person having the ignorance and audacity to say, what harm is it doing even if it doesn't work? What harm is it doing? Ah, you COVID cultist. Dear listener, I dare say that if you look honestly at what has happened to you, what's happened to me, what's happened to your neighbors over these last few months, you'd have to say that this brainwashing technique of pressure, social pressure, has been very effective in changing you.

You have been changed by the COVID cult and their brainwashing. Now, once again, quote extensively from this research website, Psychology, their article on brainwashing is very good. And they say, and I quote, peer pressure is known to be particularly effective when an individual faces a united consensus, especially if the individual is confused, frightened, or facing an ambiguous issue. Isn't this what America has faced over the last six to eight months? This united consensus from the media, from the government, right?

Even though we have reasons to question, nevertheless, many Americans have been confused, frightened, and facing this ambiguous issue, haven't they? And we've been manipulated. Well, they go on to say, psychology goes on to say, and I quote, people's ability to resist a flawed persuasive message, a flawed persuasive message, is particularly impaired when they lack the opportunity to think clearly about inadequacies of the message due to fear, sleep deprivation, and or overactivity, unquote. We have been presented with this COVID COVIDiasy. We have been presented with a flawed persuasive message.

If you bother to scratch the surface, if you bother to go deep, if you bother to research, you will find this flawed persuasive message. Your ability to resist it has been indeed impaired because you've been scared. You've been deprived of various realities around you. And the website goes on to say, and I quote, moreover, when like-minded individuals, such as those found in extremist groups, discuss a topic they basically agree upon, the result is a polarization of opinion with group members taking a more extreme view after discussion. Yes, this happens time and time again in cults, doesn't it?

We talk ourselves into believing what the cult is putting forth. That's happened with us. And the more we talk ourselves into it, the more blind we become, the more like a herd animals we become in our opinions. And they go on to say, similarly, extreme attitudes also result when people find that others share and admire their opinions. In addition, when individuals agree to costly and public sacrifices, they have a strong tendency to justify such actions by intensifying any attitudes that support these acts, a process referred to as the reduction of cognitive dissonance.

We do this, don't we? The more we sacrifice, the more we hate to admit that we were wrong in making those sacrifices because they were so costly. We want to rather reinforce those sacrifices. And people are doing it in the midst of this COVID controversy, this COVID cultism. They are indeed reducing cognitive dissonance.

There may be questions that arise about it. Why am I doing this? Why is this taking so long? Why are they keep doubling back and doubling down on their lockdowns? We may have a cognitive dissonance here, but we double down on it.

And we reduce that cognitive dissonance by justifying our actions. Ah, dear listener, this is happening time and time again. We are being in an emotional context, as they say, as the psychology website puts it. In this emotional context, the intense indoctrination associated with the term brainwashing combined to create a persuasive me-you that, at least for some targets, has the power to evoke surprising changes in both belief and behavior. Unquote.

It's happening to us, dear listener. And then, of course, there have been a variety of other persuasive techniques besides the most effective, that is social pressure. Those charged with implementing government policy on the China virus, they have experimented and brainstormed with a variety of ways to get you to comply in in addition to that most effective means, social pressure. And these brainwashing techniques include the force of law. And that is being increasingly brought to bear on us, isn't it?

City ordinances or edicts by dictatorial governors, they're all being enforced by local police across the nation. In addition, things like travel restrictions and access to public places, entry into stores and shops are all being increasingly conditioned on your compliance to everything from masks to temperature swipes, right? To, in the very near future, this is happening, this is coming. In the very near future, you will be subjected to documentation of your test, your COVID test status. And you will be subjected to then documentation on your vaccine status.

Are you up to date on all your vaccines? It's not going to be just one. Dear listener, we have become a nation of sheep. We have become a nation of sheep who refuse to do our homework. We'd rather comply.

It's a lot easier. Rather than realistically seeking the gold standard of health in our present state of COVID-acy, that gold standard of health being herd immunity, even as Sweden has done. They had a lot of uptick in cases and so forth, but that's over with now. It's behind them because they have achieved herd immunity. Rather than seeking this, we have pursued the herd mentality whereby we follow blindly the rear end in front of us like a cow, like a herd mentality.

We follow that rear end in front of us wherever it leads, whether it leads to the slaughterhouse or over a cliff. I recently heard a virologist say in passing, and this is so good. He says, there's no defeating a virus. You can't make war on a virus. It's too small, too ever-present, too adaptive, too eliminate, unquote.

That's so true. To think that you can defeat a virus, that's hubris. What is effective and what is only effective, dear listener, is your marvelous God-given immune system. Oh, as Dr. Delgado says on his website, and I love this, Dr. Delgado says, we need to stop saying, stay safe to everyone. We are safe.

We have a powerful and intelligent immune system that is designed to withstand toxic microbial inundation at all times. This is what will indeed deliver us from this so-called crisis, dear listener. By the hand of God, you have an immune system that will help defeat all comers. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and we meet for holy worship at New Geneva. We are not a part of the COVID cult.

Come without your mask to our worship service at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Once again, we meet New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church meets on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and you can call us for more information or some feedback at area code 208-523-0196.