But of course, this was only the beginning; soon the government would bring in further restrictions on our churches, ordering them to discriminate against the unvaccinated by not allowing them to attend any functions except the main service. No Sunday School, evening service, Bible study, prayer meeting, youth group, or anything else for those who couldn't- or wouldn't- show their vax papers. Oh, and everyone- vaxed and unvaxed alike- were ordered by the government to keep their mouths shut: singing praises to God was now forbidden. And all this brought quite a few members of my family in direct conflict with the leadership at their various churches, which I'll discuss in my next post.
With the advent of the COVID vaccines, a new controversy arose in the Church. Most people of faith- contrary to what has sometimes been portrayed in the media and online- are not anti-vax. There was hesitation among many people- not just in the Church- due to the swiftness of their development, worry that there hadn't been enough time to study possible complications and long-term affects. Which is true. Many who are pro-life worried that stem cells from aborted foetuses had been used to develop the vaccines, and it was remarkably hard to get a straight answer on that topic, inevitably leading to suspicion. And, as time went on and it became apparent that the vaccines stopped neither infection with nor spread of COVID, many started wondering why governments were still going full steam ahead with them, even demanding that small children- literally at zero risk from the infection- be forced to be vaccinated. Incredibly however, many churches and their leadership decided to adopt the attitude that there was no controversy: the righteous thing, the godly thing, was to take the vaccine and not ask questions. If we didn't we were breaking God's command to obey the authorities over us, and also not loving our neighbours by doing everything in our power to protect them. We could only be virtuous if we took the vaccine. End of discussion. In my very large family, decisions on the vaccine ran the gamut: some got it right away, some never got it, some eventually decided to; some got their kids vaccinated but most did not. I personally didn't get vaxed until October 2021; I felt no pressing need to do so... I was not in any high risk category, and I was pretty sure I'd had COVID the previous November, as I'd come down with one of the worst colds I've ever had at that time. Also, as time went on and I saw more & more people who I knew had taken the jab get COVID anyway, I was beginning to have my doubts as to whether the vaccines were the miracle cure we were being told they were. When I did get the vax, it was simply because our provincial government stated that they were going to rescind the mask mandate for anyone who'd had it. I was miserable enough being forced to wear a mask 40 hours a week at work, going home almost every night with a headache and feeling tired for the better part of two years, to agree to get the shot in order to lose the mask. Of course, it turned out that the government was lying; it was merely something they said to coerce people to get vaccinated, and then they refused to get rid of the mask mandate. I was coldly furious at being lied to, and at being gullible enough to believe that the government was acting in good faith. I decided then that that was it for me- I'll take no boosters or anything else COVID related pushed by our dishonest leaders. Whatever decisions I and other members of my family made regarding the vaccine, however, no one cared; we all hung out together, ate together, visited each other, talked & laughed. Because we're family and we love each other: nothing breaks that bond, certainly not something as inconsequential as whether or not someone took a vaccine. It should have been that way in the Church where, supposedly, we are all the family of God. But it wasn't because many, as in the secular world, decided to make whether or not someone took the vaccine into a purity test and condemned those who declined to play along as selfish sinners. Speaking of my family, the behaviour of various church leaders afflicted with COVID-induced hysteria has adversely affected quite a few members of it. One of my brothers and his family live in another province, and in their local church, my brother was the associate pastor while my sister-in-law was the church pianist and choir director. They were certainly not anti-vax; my brother got the jab as soon as it was offered for his age category, and they got appointments for their three teenage children to receive the vaccine as well. My sister-in-law delayed getting it; she has a fairly rare neurological disorder and her specialist told her that it was his considered opinion that it might not be safe for her to take the vaccine. He couldn't, he said apologetically, give her a medical exemption because he had no actual proof that it would adversely affect her, but he worried that it would. While she was hesitating over this decision, their 18 year old daughter got her first vaccination, became anaphylactic at the vax clinic and had to be hospitalized. After this incident, my sister-in-law decided that she wouldn't risk getting the vaccine. When their church was informed of this, she was told that she would have to step down as both pianist and choir director: no jab, no job- and no consideration for the possible consequences to her health. Such was the response of her "loving" senior pastor and deacons. My sister-in-law took her cancellation with grace and told my brother that she didn't want him to make a fuss about it. She sat quietly in the pew as someone else filled her position, though it must have broken her heart as she absolutely adored playing for the worship service. But of course, this was only the beginning; soon the government would bring in further restrictions on our churches, ordering them to discriminate against the unvaccinated by not allowing them to attend any functions except the main service. No Sunday School, evening service, Bible study, prayer meeting, youth group, or anything else for those who couldn't- or wouldn't- show their vax papers. Oh, and everyone- vaxed and unvaxed alike- were ordered by the government to keep their mouths shut: singing praises to God was now forbidden. And all this brought quite a few members of my family in direct conflict with the leadership at their various churches, which I'll discuss in my next post.
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