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Praying the News with Jennifer LeClaire
Praying the News with Jennifer LeClaire
Is HBO's The Last of Us Prophesying the Next Pandemic? (Episode 046)
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A devastating fungal pandemic wipes out most of humanity through brain infections that produce zombie-like humans. That’s the theme of the video game The Last of Us that HBO is turning into a post-apocalyptic themed television series.

But is it all fiction, or could this really happen?

It turns out, there is a real set of fungi that can hijack people’s brains and turn them into zombies. It’s even called the zombie fungus.

This is Jennifer LeClaire, and this is Praying the News. On today’s broadcast, we’ll look at how art foreshadows real-life events. We’ll explore the potential of a zombie virus and, of course, we’ll pray. 

We’ll get into all this and more after this message from our sponsor, my new course on Nocturnal Warfare 

 A group called Naughty Dog developed The Last of Us, an action-adventure game, in 2013.  Players control Joe, a smuggler tasked with escorting a young girl named Ellie across the post-apocalyptic United States. 

Players use firearms and improvised weapons to defend against cannibalistic zombie-like humans infected by a mutated fungus. The Last of Us became one of the best-selling video games of its day, posting 1.3 million units in the first week and 17 million within five years. 

Now, HBO is getting in on the action, hoping to replicate the success of the viral video game on its cable channel. 

The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel works to lead 14-year-old Ellie out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

Clearly, HBO is feeding off the fear of another pandemic. But could such a fungus spread in the United States and beyond? Could we literally see The Walking Dead play out in real life? Could people infected by this fungus become aggressive and violent?

According to a Forbes magazine article, the fungi “target insects and grow through the host's body—in some cases, it can precisely control its host’s behavior to spread the infection.” 

João Araújo, an assistant curator and researcher in mycology at the New York Botanical Garden, told Forbes it’s “very unlikely” such a jump could occur given the vast differences between human and insect biology.

But David Hughes, a professor of food security at Penn State, head of PlantVillage and a zombie fungus expert who consulted on the first Last of Us game, told Forbes it is “not that fanciful” to imagine an infection crossing into humans—animaal diseases often cross over into humans—but said a zombie fungus would “undoubtedly” lose its mind-controlling powers in the process.

That’s good news. But is the entertainment world planting a seed in our minds about the next possible pandemic? At best, the industry is playing on our fears of what comes next. If it’s not a zombie virus, it will be something else.                                                                                                                          

Jesus said in the last days we’d see pestilences, but the Word tells us over and over again not to be afraid. Intercession can stop many plagues. The ones that can’t be stopped are part of the end times paradigm that we can’t pray away.

In the meantime, how do we pray?

Pray against the spirit of fear that the entertainment and news media love to release through their programming.

Plead the blood of Jesus against new plagues.

Decree Psalm 91 against the plagues. 

I taught a class on SchooloftheSpirit.tv on Prayers that Stop Pandemics, Plagues and Pestilences Dead in their Tracks if you want to learn more about this topic.

Thanks for listening. Please give us a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts and share this with your friends. Find the show notes at www.jenniferleclaire.org/prayingthenews. Until next time, keep praying the news.

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