“It appears that in many cases, there has not been ‘valid consent’ because of undue pressure, coercion, manipulation and withholding of risks. This is wicked and shameful, particularly considering that we are supposed to be a democratic and free society.”
“Will the Confessing Church ever learn that majority decision in matters of conscience kills the spirit?” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We must strongly oppose the campaign being waged by some evangelical intellectuals to de-legitimise the concerns and emotions that lie behind Covid vaccine hesitancy and thereby void the church’s responsibility to speak up about significant human rights violations.
“Unfortunately for Christians in Australia, we don’t have clear constitutional provisions to point at when the state and territory government gets uncomfortably involved in religious affairs. It seems that while Section 116 of our constitution protects us from the Federal government messing with religion, the States and Territories get free reign.”
“I was born and brought up as one of four missionary children in Tanzania. I still remember to this day the lepers in the streets… The church there in Morogoro did not stop the sick from entering and was open to all.”
“By now we know how to keep safe and healthy. We know the risks of leaving home to partake in essential activities. Yet, many churches are still operating on the internet as if it were an online college degree.”
“In the end, to ban healthy believers from public worship for any reason other than unrepentant sin, including those based on whatever arbitrary medical treatments the government deems necessary at any particular time of the day, is to ultimately exchange the gracious staff of the Great Shepherd for the often cruel and unforgiving rod of Caesar.”
Now is the time to insist that churches be re-opened. For everyone: vaccinated and unvaccinated.
“The church would be appalled at any sort of racial/ethnic prejudice or segregation, but now in some quarters, segregation that Christ has not established, is being lauded as a solution for a return to normalcy. If there is no Jew nor Greek in the church, why should the vaccinated and unvaccinated be segregated?”
“Before thinking through how and when we should submit to governing rulers, we must first take a step back to an even more fundamental question: What is the proper role and scope of government in this world?”
“In sum, it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with what you’ve got, that counts.”
“The framing of this conflict in such terms neglects the fact that people who are fighting for a restoration of freedom aren’t just doing it for themselves but are doing it for all of society, including those who want to remain locked down.”
In fact, to mischaracterize those who prioritize certain freedom over potential safety as “unloving” and selfish, when that is clearly not by necessity the case, is itself, ironically, a violation of what it means to “love your neighbour as yourself.”
The popularity of lockdowns, mask mandates, mass censorship of professionals, and ease at which governments are bypassing constitutional guarantees, in favour of rule by bureaucratic decree, are symptoms of a greater problem.
“…the response of the professing evangelical and even Reformed church during the coronavirus has been one of the most discouraging and disheartening parts of this whole year.”
“I have heard very little talk about eternity from Christian leaders. Instead, the conversation goes back to loving neighbors by wearing masks, shrinking services and refusing to sing in church, and other odd examples of “morbid safetyism.” Fearing the scorn of the world and ruining our witness, countless churches and their pastors have shut themselves into an endless Zoom loop. And yet, does this strategy reflect the fearlessness that the resurrection offers? Or is it a symptom of the secularism that now infects the church?”
Indeed, when a Christian’s best testimony to his neighbors is found in waiting patiently for governing officials to permit churches to gather again, thus denying Christ’s command to gather, we have a new instance of Corban—replacing the law of God with human traditions.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust.
Does God require our civil rulers to repent of sin and govern according to God’s Word? Does God command us as a citizenry to repent and put our trust in him, in order for our land to be healed?
An apartheid between the COVaxxed and un-COVaxxed will carve a caste system in the fabric of Australian life. This isn’t something to celebrate or welcome. It’s something to resist because precedent matters.
