There are many of us here that use to be Bible believeing conservatives I would add. It's very easy to be one, when one is nurtured so.
It takes a much bigger person to break those shackles and look at cold hard reality. To use your word "pox"-- indeed, it was and is a pox to the Gentiles, and a few assorted devout Jews.
Believing in the unbelievable is a Gold Star accomplishment to the desert god's people, all of 'em as magical thinking as they are.
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives..." John Stuart Mill