Posted July 29, 2026
“It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson [sic] in the world.” This is what Dr. Anthony Fauci wrote in his personal diary on May 21, 2020, part of more than a thousand pages of entries published by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) over the weekend.
Dr. Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades. When the coronavirus pandemic began, he became a central figure in America’s response, appearing regularly in television interviews and alongside President Trump in press conferences.
Sen. Paul has long maintained that the virus emerged from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China rather than originating in animals, and he has accused Dr. Fauci and other government officials of misleading the public and Congress about the source of the leak. He heads the Senate Homeland Security Committee and released the journal entries, which date from December 2019 until December 2022, in preparation for Dr. Fauci’s appearance today before his committee.
The hearing is likely to be contentious as it focuses on the origins of the pandemic. However, what Dr. Fauci said about himself in his private diary is also making news. The Hill headlined its coverage, “Fauci diary entries: ‘Press is going wild with me.’” The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes that “the most embarrassing entries relate to Dr. Fauci’s fixation with his own press coverage.” And the New York Times reports that the diary “paints a portrait of Dr. Fauci as obsessed with himself, reveling in his own importance and the celebrities he knows.”
In one sense, I feel sorry for Dr. Fauci. Who of us would want our private thoughts or notes to be made public? When he appeared before the House of Representatives in 2024, he became emotional while sharing the threats his family has received, including harassing letters sent to his wife and three daughters and “credible death threats” against him.
But in another sense, a person with his public profile and platform should not be surprised if their personal notes eventually become public. Audio recordings of former President Joe Biden and a ghostwriter working on his 2017 memoir have been released by Republicans in Congress and are generating headlines today. Richard Nixon’s secret audio recordings of his Oval Office meetings and phone calls led to his eventual resignation from office.
It has been said that what we are in private is what we really are. C. S. Lewis noted that if you have rats in your cellar, “You are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding.”
Here we find one of the ways Christianity is unique among the world’s religions: It claims that Jesus lives inside us by his Spirit and remakes us into his character (Romans 8:29). When he promises peace that is “not as the world gives” (John 14:27), he means that his peace transforms us despite our circumstances. As Br. Curtis Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston noted, “The gift of peace Jesus is talking about is from the inside out.”
As a result, the Spirit can sanctify us so fully that our private diary would bring public honor to our Lord. By God’s grace, our personal thoughts become so “honorable” and “commendable” that they glorify our Lord (Philippians 4:8). Such holistic holiness is our Father’s goal for us as he recreates us to be “a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).
But there’s more to the story.
If you’re like me, today’s article thus far has been less than encouraging. You know God wants you to be holy as he is holy (1 Peter 1:16). But you also know that you are not there yet. Nor am I.
Here we find another dimension to the Christian faith that is also unique among the world’s religions: Jesus not only works to sanctify our inner person, but he also empowers us to restrain the sinful impulses that remain along the way. God’s word promises that “he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
As Jesus noted, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). You and I will face trials and temptations every day we live in our fallen bodies in this fallen world, but Jesus will empower us to defeat the “desires of the flesh” that “keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17).
The key is to give temptation immediately to him, knowing that when we “submit yourselves therefore to God,” we are then able to “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The more we focus on Jesus, the less we will focus on “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” (1 John 2:16).
To this end, let’s close with an observation by St. Claire of Assisi, one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi. She suggested:
We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation.
Whose “image” will you “become” today?
“According to the New Testament, God wills that the church be a people who show what God is like.” —Stanley Grenz
The post What Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diaries tell us about him appeared first on Denison Forum.
