This article was written by Matthew Littlefield and Leanne Bartrim.
There is much good in the Australian Church. Pastors in many different contexts have done a fantastic job of caring for people, reaching out to people, ministering to people, and just all-around pastoring. The Church is a vital institution and most pastors genuinely want the best for people. This is evident across the Church.
However, though this may be the case in general, more and more evidence is coming to light that, for whatever reason, the Church overall–not all churches–but the Church overall, is dropping the ball massively right now, with regards to covid injuries and the effects of mandates. Many people have spoken about this and have been advocating for the injured for some time. But there appears to be a situation in some Australian churches where people with injuries are feeling pressure to keep silent about them.
Matthew tells us something powerful in his gospel that can give us some insight into this situation. In Matthew 9:35-38, we read;
“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Jesus is going about the cities and villages in Judea and constantly seeing that his people are abandoned by their shepherds. They are being left shepherd-less. Now, he did not mean that religious services were not happening, because they were. He did not mean that there were no religious leaders busily going about their religious duties because they were. He did not mean that religious leaders were hard to be found, because they were not, Jesus encountered them everywhere he went.
What Jesus is observing is that the way the religious leaders were leading was increasing the burdens on the backs of his people. He says this directly in Matthew 23:4 – “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”
We could apply this in many ways, to many situations, but if you read Matthew 9 in full what you see is that Matthew shows us how harassed and excluded the sick are, and how uninterested the religious leaders are in their suffering. Note the context: Jesus encounters a paralytic man, a bunch of lost sinners needing to hear about salvation, a sick girl who has died, a chronically bleeding woman, two blind men, and a man who cannot speak because he is possessed.
The religious leaders who see Jesus’ activities in healing and reaching these people call him a blasphemer (9:3), question why he is associating with sinners (9:11), obsess about why he is not fasting (9:14), and accuse him of being possessed by the devil (9:34).
The religious leaders in Israel were more concerned about their agendas and hobby horses, rather than caring about the suffering that was going on around them. Hence why Matthew says in verse 36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” It’s not that the shepherds were not there, it is that for cultural reasons they were overlooking so many of the hurting.
The one question the religious leaders should have asked in this passage was: Lord, teach us to heal the sick like you do, teach us to cast out demons like you do. Lord, teach us to be attuned to how our people are suffering like you are. It looks as if these suffering people were invisible to the religious leaders in Jesus’ day, at least largely so. But this could not happen today, could it?
People who have read this chapter could not be doing the same thing today? Shunning and ignoring the sick? Well maybe not some types of sick people, but there is a class of untouchables, a class of the shunned sick who are experiencing exactly what Jesus saw in his day. I was shocked to here about this myself.
However, the pressure to ignore vaccine injuries is so strong in our society, we should not be surprised that it can even affect good men. The sad truth is that, for whatever reason, many who were injured by the vaccines are being either ignored, or actively shunned and mocked by some churches and much of society right now. This is not hypothetical, as Leanne Bartrim is going to explain. There are people observing this and experiencing this and telling Leanne about it. Here is what Leanne has been seeing.
Leanne, Advocate for the Injured
I, Leanne, have worked on numerous investigations for various official bodies, including for the Crime and Corruption Commission, Queensland Health and for Centrelink, so I have a lot of experience investigating injustice.
For the past seven months, I have been helping those who have been injured, or had their loved one die due to having the covid injection. Some were pro-vaccine, others anti-vaccine, or neither. All who have taken the injection have been coerced. Those suffering with deteriorating health shared why they took the injection.
53-year-old:
I took the vaccine as I believed this was the only way to stop lockdowns and bring life back to normal. I also believed by taking it, I was going to be able to travel again. This was very important to me, as my family lives overseas.
Everything I was seeing in the media, from the government advertisements and news encouraged me to be vaccinated. I had no reason to doubt what I was seeing from these sources and it encouraged me to get the vaccine.
38-year-old:
I took the vaccine because I worked in a hospital only metres away from a testing clinic and I had been told that the vaccine would keep me safe and stop me spreading the virus. I felt significant pressure from what I was seeing in the media as I saw them scapegoating individuals who had contracted corona virus and were not vaccinated. I got vaccinated because I trusted what the health service had told me and what I had seen in advertising and news media.
45-year-old:
I felt extreme pressure from the government as I heard it being said that all the mandates were coming in and if I didn’t get vaccinated by 17 December 2021 that the government would not allow me to work. I felt further pressure from my father who was concerned for my financial well-being.
The mandate scared me. I wasn’t even considering getting the vaccine after the adverse event I witnessed my friend endure. I don’t watch the news, but I was continually told by everyone around me that if I didn’t get vaccinated, the government wouldn’t allow me to work due to the mandates coming in. I heard the government continually assuring that the vaccines were safe and effective. I was told that I wouldn’t be able to visit my family or participate in society if I was unvaccinated.
I felt so much pressure and extreme stress. I am the only source of income for my daughter and me. I was building a house. My family means the world to me. I was so upset that I had to get vaccinated, but I really felt at that point, that my choice had been made for me and I had no choice at all.
52-year-old:
I was aware all these vaccines are only a clinical trial but I had no choice if I wanted to stay employed. I had several discussions with the manager who told me “no double vaccine, no job”. I was aware of the possible heart side effects but not the neurological side effects.
44-year-old:
My brother-in-law said ‘you don’t want to have blood on your hands and kill your mum’ because I live with my mum. My brother-in-law pushed it. He has friends in the UK and kept going on about the science. It made me feel really upset. I felt the pressure from my brother-in-law that I needed to get it to protect my mum.
I had heard of a number of people passing away and getting injured from the vaccine and sent it to my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law said it wasn’t true and for me to ‘give cold hard facts’. A lot of what … said made me think that if my mum had covid it might kill her.
I needed an income to live. If it wasn’t for me earning an income I wouldn’t get the vaccine at all. I have usual expenses that anyone would, so I need a consistent income every week. I wanted to please my brother-in-law and not be in any arguments with him or my sister and also so he would say ‘that was good.’
32-year-old:
My fears included the fact that the vaccines are in the trial period. I also considered that I would like to have another child soon. I was also anxious that if I have the vaccine that my cancer may come back. I begged my Haematologist and GP for an exemption. Both declined. I was distraught. So much is unknown regarding the vaccines and I have many questions that still aren’t being or cannot be answered. I would have much preferred to wait just a little longer before deciding to receive the vaccines. I experienced a lot of anxiety and pressure from having a deadline to be vaccinated by 18 December 2021 in order to keep my job.
I tried to keep my composure going to the clinic. It was a strange situation where I wasn’t hyperventilating, I just felt an overwhelming sadness, despair and helplessness. I was flying the white flag I was so adamant I wouldn’t do. When I got there, tears flowed from my eyes. I was trying my hardest not to cry because I felt embarrassed as I’m not a big crier, but they just flowed from my eyes. I could not control it. It was like my body was subconsciously telling me to get out of there.
I should not have ever had to experience any of this. I should not have to be feeling any of these emotions. I feel depressed, anxious, teary and hopeless. At no time did I undergo the procedure to receive the two vaccines of my own free will. I was coerced and received the vaccines under duress in order to retain my employment. I would never have willingly received the vaccine if I did not have to in order to keep my job.
The Covid vaccines are still experimental (in phase 3 clinical trial) and the long-term effects, on its recipients are largely unknown. Advertising the Covid injection as ‘safe and effective’, when the clinical trial has not been completed and the safety data has not been assessed, is fraud.
Everyone taking part in a clinical trial must give ‘informed consent’, or have a parent or guardian or other legally authorised person give consent.
You cannot be entered into a clinical trial if you don’t want to be. If you are asked to take part, you are free to say yes or no at any time. There should be ‘no pressure on you to enter a trial’. If you are ‘under 18, a parent or guardian has to give legal consent’ and ‘you have to give your permission as well’.
Pastors and ministers have ‘encouraged’ vaccination from the pulpit. “It’s ‘safe and effective’ and ‘I’ve had it.’” This assurance was all some needed to go against their own conscience and have the injection. This is coercion. Here is a link to famous pastors who did this very thing[i], but it was not just famous pastors.
You may not think this is coercion, and if you do not we would be happy to hear your reasons. But to push for something in a time of great pressure from the pulpit can have the unintended pressure of making people feel like it is their God-ordained duty. Perhaps some people did this without intending. But the effect is no different.
Christians have said it’s ‘unchristian’ if you decline to take the injection. This is coercion. When people are told that it is their “Christian duty” or “it is how they should love their neighbour”, or it is “not Christian” to decline it, this is telling people that they are falling short of the Christian standard for not choosing a medical procedure. This is not right. Worse still are those who encouraged pregnant women it was ‘safe and effective’ to take while pregnant or breast feeding. This has resulted in a number of spontaneous abortions, still births and birth defects.
Coercion is not consent.
The Australian Immunisation Handbook statesfor consent to be ‘legally valid’…. ‘It must be given voluntarily in the absence of undue pressure, coercion or manipulation’.
Section 348 of the Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld) defines “consent” to mean consent freely and voluntarily given by a person with the cognitive capacity to give the consent.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1) , a person’s consent to an act is not freely and voluntarily given if it is obtained—
(a) by force; or
(b) by threat or intimidation; or
(c) by fear of bodily harm; or
(d) by exercise of authority; or
(e) by false and fraudulent representations about the nature or purpose of the act; or
(f) by a mistaken belief induced by the accused person that the accused person was the person’s sexual partner.
(3) A person is not to be taken to give consent to an act only because the person does not, before or at the time the act is done, say or do anything to communicate that the person does not consent to the act.
(4) If an act is done or continues after consent to the act is withdrawn by words or conduct, then the act is done or continues without consent.
Section 245 defines what constitutes an assault:
(1) A person who strikes, touches, or moves, or otherwise applies force of any kind to, the person of another, either directly or indirectly, without the other person’s consent, or with the other person’s consent if the consent is obtained by fraud, or who by any bodily act or gesture attempts or threatens to apply force of any kind to the person of another without the other person’s consent, under such circumstances that the person making the attempt or threat has actually or apparently a present ability to effect the person’s purpose, is said to assault that other person, and the act is called an “assault”.
Being coerced to be injected with the covid vaccine is an assault. Saying the covid injection is ‘safe and effective’ is to obtain consent by fraud.
Other possible criminal charges include section 229(1) assaults occasioning bodily harm; section 320 Grievous bodily harm, assault which is likely to cause permanent injury to health or serious disfigurement; and other possible criminal charges when the result of taking the injection causes death.
In November 2021, the niece of a 65 year old who died, after having one injection of AstraZeneca, wrote to the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and a number of other politicians. In part she wrote:
I write to you today with a heavy heart and to express my strongest objections to the discriminative measures the Palaszczuk government is proposing to introduce on unvaccinated Queenslanders on 17 December 2021.
On 14 October 2021 my Uncle passed away 10 weeks after one shot of the Astrazeneca vaccine. He was a fit, healthy and active 65 year old.
He blindly trusted the health advice from the government and had the vaccine so he could travel interstate for his employment. He died of a massive cerebral and gastrointestinal haemorrhage (side effects synonymous with the astrazeneca vaccine). Throughout his 12 days in hospital doctors coldly told the family they do not have room to rehabilitate him. The doctors would not report his condition to TGA or ATAGI. They brushed it off as a stroke. With the knowledge that our family has no history of stroke and the inconsistencies displayed by the doctors we decided to INDEPENDENTLY request an autopsy through the coroner court. The health professionals of our society, who we look up to, to protect, us have sadly let us down. This has been deeply heartbreaking and a confusing time for our family.
I now find myself at the same mercy with the mandated vaccination program required in Queensland. I stand to lose both of my avenues of income. I can’t get an exemption from this vaccine, even though it killed my uncle, my mother’s brother. I cannot sleep, I am anxious, stressed and cannot focus on everyday activities at my place of employment. I have been going to my employer and crying almost daily since it has been announced but they say they are bound by the government mandates. My children are also suffering due to experiencing the loss of their uncle and being forced to have a vaccine that killed him. My hands are tied as I am a single mother raising two children. I have limited resources and we are in a position of becoming homeless due to the lack of housing.
As of 17 December, I won’t be CONSENTING to a vaccine, but will be FORCED to RECEIVE a vaccine for my EMPLOYMENT, not for my HEALTH!
Mr Morrison’s response letter stated ‘the government ‘did not support mandatory vaccinations’. However he wanted ‘as many Australians to get vaccinated as quickly as possible to reach our goals under the National Plan and say goodbye to lockdowns’.
Her mother told me last night that her daughter had no other option but to be vaccinated.
Labelling vaccine injuries as an ‘adverse event’ makes it sound a rare and uncommon occurrence but it is not. It is not until you start preparing an affidavit for an injured person, hear their story and study their medical records, that the full extent of their injury becomes clear.
They may look fine on the outside but their bodies are riddled with injury and disease. We have compassion for those with cancer but what we are seeing is disdain for those who say they have been injured from the injection. Will we also dismiss those who are or will be grieving that they took the experimental injection or worse still gave it to their children. This is not only people within our churches but also amongst the unchurched.
The response from the majority of doctors and specialists is to refuse to acknowledge the injury is from the injection. The injured are shunned and turned away and told heart pain, extensive bleeding, seizures, is caused by stress, anxiety or broken heart syndrome. Some are not admitted to hospital, because then they would be eligible for government compensation, instead they are kept in outpatient areas and then discharged.
One young mother who was taken to hospital thought she was dying because she was having so many seizures (three seizures at home in front of her children, eight seizures in hospital) and had also become paralysed down one side of her body. She was not admitted to hospital but discharged after 17 hours, while still paralysed, to find her own way home.
She was told by the hospital neurologist, ‘the seizures were stress related and that she sees it a lot with mothers’. However the neurologist she visited later said it was due to the covid vaccine and he had been seeing numerous patients suffering the same. She said her neurologist was preparing a ‘quality of life plan’ for her. She was 41 years old, a single mother, who needed to decide whether she would have the ‘booster’ to keep her job.
Many others have told me they thought they were dying and had to say their goodbyes to their husband and young children. Others had to deal with the trauma of hearing of their diagnosis alone, without their loved ones by their side, because of hospital ‘lockdowns’.
All I have spoken to have recounted the same journey of being coerced to take the injection to keep their jobs; it was the ‘right thing to do’; and to remove the restrictions on their life. However once injured, they lose their jobs/health/freedoms, they are labelled ‘anti vaxxers’, are treated appallingly by the medical professionals and in the hospitals.
They are alone and can’t talk about it as others don’t understand. Some are now homeless, most can’t afford the medical costs, that is, if they can find someone who believes them and knows how to treat them as most injuries/illnesses are novel. The best results are being found not with more drugs, but with natural remedies.
Those that have lost loved ones are also being treated appallingly and in their grief they have to fight for the recognition that their child, husband, wife, sister, brother, parent was killed by the Covid injection.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2
Pastors prepared their congregation that ‘one day’ we will have to stand against the government. It has been two years now and that day has not come instead they have distanced themselves from the ‘anti-vaxxers’.
If the pastors do not recognise they have conformed to this world and repent, then how can we rely on them to understand the plight of those injured or have lost family, friends and loved ones after taking the covid injection.
We need to pray. Pray for those suffering due to the mandates, pray that the government overreach will end, pray for those who are injured and dying from the injection, pray for those who have lost loved ones due to suicide because of the lockdowns/mandates, pray for those who have spontaneously aborted due to the injections, pray for the elderly who have been put on end of life protocols which imitate ‘Covid’ symptoms, pray for those who have lost loved ones because they were coerced to take an injection which killed them. Pray that they will come to know Jesus.
We need to share the gospel. As Christians we need to acknowledge the covid injection has injured many. Through your own ignorance don’t treat the injured as the world has. When they come into your church treat them with kindness and believe them. So they will be open to hear the gospel. The only hope we all have is in Jesus.
If you would like to contact Leanne with your story, if you would like to see how you can get justice, if you would like to know how to make a police report contact her here at: lucyb4457@gmail.com.
Conclusion
The Church has an opportunity here to step into a gap. Some pastors and leaders care more about raising up leaders in their churches, than leading the harassed around them to better pastures. Some pastors care more about their visions than looking at what is happening to the injured people around them. Some pastors care more about associating with the culturally accepted than being seen publicly with the culturally shunned.
It doesn’t matter what you believe about vaccines and the government, it is irrelevant, all that matters is that sick people are hurting and large portions of the Church refuse to acknowledge their existence. How could this happen?
Because a few decades ago the Church made being accepted by the culture its primary form of evangelism, and the culture is telling the Church right now: you had better not acknowledge those conspiracy theorists over there.
Well, it needs to be acknowledged and shame on all those who aren’t; your God is watching and he sees the state of the Australian people, and whether or not his Australian Church is fed and cared for by leaders, or harassed and helpless.
Pastors, we know you care for people, and we know the pressure of this time has been immense, but how do you respond to people who share how they were coerced and hurt? Because sometimes how a pastor responds to injustice is the most important thing for an injured person.
Pastors don’t control the levers of power in society, and no one expects them to, but maybe creating an atmosphere where people can talk about their injuries might remove some stumbling blocks for some lost people who need the gospel. The Church should take this opportunity to step into this gap, outside the camp is where the Church is at its best.
Who is Leanne Bartrim?
Please do not consider my biography as boasting in my own work rather that you will understand my experience in writing this article.
‘But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’ Jeremiah 9:24 ESV
I was employed by Queensland Health as a Principal Investigator in the Ethical Standards Unit for 5 years (2009 – Jan 2014) until the Health Districts decentralised and formed statutory bodies with a name change to Hospital and Health Services, each with a Chief Executive and a Board.
I was responsible for complex matters of financial and commercial malpractice and fraud. Investigations I conducted included:
Identifying a fraud in excess of $3million by a non-government organisation (NGO), not identified by a forensic accounting firm engaged to initially conduct the investigation. Collated business records and provided a complex forensic analysis of improper expenditure and fraudulent service delivery to support civil action and a complaint to the Queensland Police Service (QPS) High Tech Crime Investigation Unit – Fraud & Corporate Crime Group (QPS Fraud Squad).
In November 2011 I attended a meeting with Qld Health Senior Officers and detectives from QPS Fraud Squad to make a complaint of fraud perpetrated by a Qld Health employee in excess of $16million. I identified a second fraudulent scheme involving the same subject officer. I was responsible for securing evidence and maintaining chain of custody of surrendered gifts (given by the subject officer) to support the Crime and Corruption Commission Proceeds of Crime team. I attended regular meetings at QPS Headquarters in Brisbane.
Investigated corrupt conduct by a senior employee regarding procurement and tendering on contracts in the vicinity of $6million; and I investigated fraud and misconduct by a Health Service Chief Executive.
In January 2014 I transferred to Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service and was located at the Gold Coast University Hospital for 3 years. I provided advice to the Board and Chief Executive which included the interpretation and operational implications of legislation; governing standards; policy and directives; and reported on current and emerging governance and compliance related issues. I managed delegations, conflicts of interest, gifts and benefits disclosures, and Right to Information (FOI). Provided strategic advice on fraud investigations. Engaged with risk management advisers to report compliance risks, and provide assurance as to controls for identified risks. I developed a good knowledge of the non-clinical operations of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health service.
Prior to my appointment with Queensland Health I worked at the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (1 year) and at Centrelink investigating serious fraud (2 years) and was required to attend court on criminal matters.
My qualifications and training include:
- Graduate Diploma in Fraud and Financial Investigation, Charles Sturt University – 2012
- Bachelor of Business (Accounting), Charles Sturt University – 2001
- Certificate IV in Government Investigation, Australian Security Academy – 2009
- Intelligence Training, (Centrelink) Australian Forensic Services – 2007
- Advanced Government Decision Making for Queensland Health, Clayton Utz – 2013
References:
[i] Meghan Basham, 2022, “How The Federal Government Used Evangelical Leaders To Spread COVID Propaganda To Churches”, Illinois Family Institute, https://illinoisfamily.org/religious/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches/
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