We break our habitual reserve on what's been inflicted on the body politic over the past three years with this extended discussion of lockdown—and its essential inhumanity cloaked in the garb of science and righteousness. Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben with his concept of biopolitics is our guide. We realize that this has been an incredibly painful set of issues for many of you to even attempt to discuss, so we try to model a way of talking about without rancor even while calling it like we see it. But we hope, whatever you thought and however you managed, your conclusion is the same as ours: Never again.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Before Auschwitz, Illness and Healing, Faith to the Aid of Science, St Paul among the Philosophers, Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague, Virtual Communion

2. Agamben, Where Are We Now?

3. Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler

4. This is my only other public statement related to covid: "Churches During Lockdown: Near Disaster"

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