Ungodly masks. My body, my choice.

COVID switched the message. Now Republicans are "pro-choice."

Republicans say God isn't so much pro-life as pro-freedom. 

Love-thy-neighbor is socialist slavery.

Body autonomy had been primarily a Democratic message. There are anti-vaxxers on both left and right, but most of the energy defending body autonomy comes from Democrats. 

They are the ones protesting police searches of body cavities, the ones defending self-identification of gender, and the ones defending a woman's right to choose her own contraception, her own decision on sexual consent, and--the big one--her own right to choose abortion.

No one advocates for abortion as good per se. Abortion is defended as a sometimes-necessary thing, a serious decision to be made by someone, and the best person--the person with the right to make it--is the woman herself. Her body, her decision. 

The response by many Republicans is that her body isn't hers alone anymore. She carries another person inside her and she has to protect that other person. If she doesn't choose to do it then government will require she do so. She gave up sole autonomy when she got pregnant. Life is precious, designed in God's image.

Abortion is the great issue that combines politics and religion. It has been a very successful political marriage for bonding many religious people to the Republican Party. 

Then along comes COVID. Trump and Republicans have been the COVID-skeptic party and the populist party of mask-resistance. Democrats have been the social-control party, less reluctant than Republicans to impose restrictions on assembly and to require mask-wearing around others. Protests over masks and enforced closures have sprung up all around the country but a consistent characteristic of them is that they are associated with Trump. I have never seen mask-protesters carrying Biden signs, but Trump signs are common, nearly universal. This makes intuitive sense when considering partisan politics. Trump has shaped the GOP electorate into a populist party of COVID skepticism and minimization, and these demonstrations are political protests against the powerful elites in government who are trying to enforce restrictions. 

The tribalism makes sense, but not the justification message. After all, the "pro-life" message was God-given and Bible based. Don't masks save lives? Wouldn't mask-wearing protect the lives of innocent people? Isn't that analogous to requiring a woman to bear a pregnancy to term?

What's going on?

An incident at the Oregon legislature gives a hint. Legislative leaders, observing that the building was a workplace as well as a meeting place, established the workplace rule that people inside it needed to wear masks. Yesterday, at a one-day special session, a Republican state senator from the rural community of Myrtle Creek, Oregon took to the senate floor, quoted First Samuel about the Lord breaking into pieces the enemies of his chosen people:

"You have joined Kate Brown in her campaign of intimidation against the people and children of God. The appointed king of kings is Jesus Christ, and this is His kingdom, not ours. The days of your unchecked assault against our freedoms and his children is over. We are being forced to wear these masks today and that your false authority will be enforced against any of us who don't submit to you."

And then, ceremoniously, he removed his mask. 

The tribal religion of the GOP is not Social Gospel love-thy-neighbor, care-for-the-sick Protestantism. It is New Testament deliverance through individual salvation. One is saved personally, by becoming born again. It is not a social act. It is connection between a self-reliant individual and God. It gets inspiration from Old Testament stories of Jewish liberation from slavery and religious oppression. In this construction Oregon's governor--and other governments imposing social distancing and mask requirements--are analogous to Egyptian or Babylonian tyrants, imposing their will on an enslaved people.

The "choice" facing a Republican mask-skeptic is not a love-thy-neighbor decision. It is a decision whether or not to accept slavery. Let neighbors choose for themselves whether to accept the mask mark of servitude. It is not a decision about neighbors. It's about you.

The Old Testament theme of religion in oppression is circulating in Republican social and broadcast media. Fox & Friends this morning had a line-up of stories about freedom and the oppression of religion and family, just trying to meet in groups of their choice. The Fox website headlined Alabama's newly-elected House Representative Jerry Carl who "wants Americans back at work, in churches," and another featuring Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson who "warned of the motives of 'ungodly legislators.'"

There may be a long-term effect on the abortion debate. Republican officeholders have gotten accustomed to justifying possible injury to others based on something fundamental, personal autonomy and liberation. My body belongs to me and me alone. I can choose to care about others, but you cannot make me.

The demographics of COVID mean that hospitalizations and deaths target the most vulnerable--in this case the elderly. Republicans have crossed two bridges: Body autonomy trumps the victimhood of the vulnerable. It may be hard to go back.