It’s finally happened: Fauci has become a god in his own mind

Anthony Fauci was a career bureaucrat. In most people’s minds, while bureaucrats have significant power—way more than any person, especially an unelected person, should have—no one would mistake them for gods. Yet Anthony Fauci has apparently had an apotheosis, at least in his own mind.

And yes, apotheosis is an obscure word. I picked it up somewhere along the line, either from history or literature. It comes from the Greek verb for “to deify” and means literally that: A living, or once-living, person has become divine. This doesn’t actually require a religious system. In North Korea, the whole Kim clan attained divine status despite the country’s fanatic opposition to traditional religions. The state is their church, so the head of the state is their god.

In America, thanks to our ever-encroaching leftist government, the state is rapidly assuming the status of a religious institution. COVID accelerated the process, so it’s no wonder that, during the COVID era, Anthony Fauci literally attained the status of a saint in some people’s eyes:

LOL — Get a load of this Dr. Fauci votive candle!!https://t.co/w6LKu4x5tU

— Seeker of Truth (@ChicagoCarol) September 28, 2021

Like millennia of saints before him, Fauci was performing miracles. And in a way, it really was miraculous how he managed to make tens of millions of people feel that tying a dirty rag across their faces and locking themselves away was heroic and would grant them the next best thing to eternal life.

We’ve now learned that Fauci, having first attained sainthood, has ascended to the next level. He just announced that he has given up the Christian God, mostly because he is the master of his own moral universe:

Anthony Fauci explains that although he identifies as Catholic, his “personal ethics on life” are so strong that he has no need to practice the religion. “It seems like a pro forma thing that I don’t really need to do.” pic.twitter.com/r5YbCs2gbM

— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) December 9, 2023

Fauci also gently criticizes the Catholic Church itself, and I can see where that’s valid. I’m no fan of Pope Francis, who seems intent on re-making the church in the left’s image…but that’s a subject for another post.

The issue here is that Fauci seems to believe that his “personal ethics” trump those he can derive from the Judeo-Christian faith. Think about that for a moment.

What was unique about Judaism when it burst on the scene was that it was a religion defined not by placating various gods to get good crops, repel natural disasters, and have healthy children but by morality itself. Christianity continued that understanding of God: As children of God, we are required to live life according to a very specific, elevated morality that, for Jews, comes from the Torah and that, for Christians, adds the Gospels.

Living by these rules will not fix our crops, stop earthquakes, or save our children. These rules also transcend the power of the state. This is why, in the face of tyranny, it is the people of strong faith who are so often at the frontlines of the fight against that tyranny. By abiding by God’s moral rules, we bring ourselves closer to God, although we can never be God.  

But for Fauci, his “personal ethics” are enough. The teachings of the Christian faith, which include humility, have ceased to matter.

Image: X screen grab.