Wonderful, very enlightening, bless your heart, I am delighted you have noticed the Christian connection. Personally I was deeply distressed that more of the churches did not stand up. Seeing police cars rolling in to church yards to stop people meeting for worship honestly shocked me to my core. Thank you for this Substack, I look forward to part 2.
In a world where people change their “truth” as often as I change my underwear, the Bible is the one thing that I can trust to be true now and true later. I don’t necessarily “love” everything I read ie. turn the other cheek, but it is true and it will go better for me if I obey God in this instance. As christians we obey God first, then the govt. That is why the govt hates us. Our loyalty should be to our creator first. We are also called to stand up for what is right and I just knew “something” was off when we were called to “two weeks to flatten the curve” and then after that nothing made sense anymore. I was surprised at those who were so fearful. I guess because of my relationship with God, I don’t fear death. I don’t have a death wish; I am just not afraid to die when it is my time. After all everyone WILL die eventually so really we must get ready for it. Like Martin Luther said “if you have nothing worth dying for then you have nothing worth living for” (or something like that ). I will talk about Jesus until I take my last breath and if that happens to be in jail because the government doesnt like my lifestyle, my thoughts or what I say then so be it.
Thanks for the kind words. I think the Christian underpinnings might be that we were upset by the actual cruelty of the mandates and edicts from public health. I know that Jay, Francis and I were bonded by our horror of what was being done to people. For me, that was even bigger than the scientific corruption. So, I wonder if that is part of it. Anyway -- keep on going with the writing and good works.
Great article Pairodocs!. Maybe there is a sector of society (older) who were raised as Christian. Today the younger generation have given up on church and moral teachings. They have replaced going to church with going to Starbucks and relating to one another via their Iphones and other technology. They are more interested in their 'friends' on Facebook and Instagram and how many likes they can get by telling their vacation stories or daily issues. In other words, they have lost connection to what is really important - each other. Going to church gave that community spirit. Now they just burn them down because of what they stand for. It is well beyond disturbing. Trudeau's "understanding" comment was basically a go ahead and do it, attitude. :(
I am with Jen Adams. Hebrews 11 , the hall of faith, they were sawn in half etc.
as an adult convert I have had 30 plus years of being the odd man out in my family, going to church Sunday, teaching my children different values. My extended family never respected it. It was always the edge of rejection so Covid was another level but something I had already practiced for decades. Also, Trudeau put in a law in 2016 that denied pro-life groups summer student funding and has been so dogmatic on abortion that I already didn’t trust him and he has two standards for bodily autonomy. Abortion for any woman any time but get a vaccine or be locked out of society. I felt it my duty to stand against that. I too know there are things worth dying for. I hope not to but if necessary God will give me the strength
I don't understand why it is so hard to divine that rational consciousness is a gift of the divine ...
That our shared humanity is a wonderful thing, and that altruism which places rationality above empathy and human connection is a step on the path toward an inhuman collective.
If you're going to be inspired to follow one man, why not Jesus? If the divine is real, why are Christian claims impossible?
(This is I think a roadlock for many, especially the young and progressive and idealistic ... If the divine is true, and your parents and ancestors knew this, then knowledge is inherently conservative! And the world is truly corrupt beyond the power of the collective to fix it. Maybe this mortal life, of great significance to each of us in the here and now, is not the most important.)
Thanks as always for this excellent piece. I think since my childhood in the 60s Christians have had to face contempt and ridicule from many in society, especially youth, and hence had to be strong to stay true to their beliefs. Church burning and the conflating of 'settler' and colonial abuses with Christianity continue here, whilst in Nigeria for example there is an islamic genocide of Christians going on, involving government troops and herdsmen....claims of 200 murdered in Jan alone, 150,000 since 2009 and over 20,000 buildings destroyed in the last couple of years as they are killed, enslaved or driven off the land......and barely a peep from the established church leaders. (Actually probably that 'barely' is unnecessary.) There is also the issue that quite a few of us have returned to belief via the argument that satan certainly exists as the only explanation of what is happening in the world today...ergo so does God!
I've experienced the same thing in my efforts to raise awareness and help for the vaccine-injured: I find myself surrounded by Christians in this work.
And yet, I look around at prominent Christian leaders and they are not here. Not those who embraced Francis Collins and still laud him for "humility" for admitting (but not correcting) "mistakes" that ruined people's lives. Not those who promoted getting vaccinated as a way of loving our neighbors, but are silent about the devastation caused by these products. And not even those who pushed to open churches and resisted government control, but stopped short of advocating for the injured.
They all walk by on the other side of the road, instead of stopping to help, as Jesus commanded us to do in the good Samaritan parable.
That teaching should be in the forefront in the minds of Christ-followers because his two big commands are to love God and love our neighbors. Jesus clarified the latter for a lawyer, who wanted to parse the definition of "neighbor." He taught the concept with a parable about an outsider stopping to help a man who had been attacked by robbers and left for dead, while the religious insiders --concerned about propriety and personal cleanliness-- walked by on the other side of the road and did not help.
The message is not "be an insider, don't get involved if it might be messy or personally costly to help."
The message is:
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the
hands of robbers?"
The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
I'm so grateful for the individual Christians who see and help our neighbors injured by products passed off as vaccines and lies passed off as policy.
And I'm also completely out of patience with the Christian leaders who continue to walk on the other side of the road, unrepentant and unmerciful even now. As a united force, Christians could break the politicized stigma around vaccine injuries and other pandemic harms by demanding truth, justice, and mercy for our neighbors and for us all.
Where do they think that road is taking them? By ignoring devastation, they choose to support the ones who caused it instead of loving God's precious people, weeping with those who weep, ending oppression, and caring for those harmed by injustice.
Nice. Good analysis. I am a church-goer, and believe strongly in focusing on gratitude and the Golden Rule. Always have. I am also an independent thinker. I don't personally see being a 'believer' alone as the cause of independent thinking, I have seen plenty of Christian fundamentalist types over the years be entirely unreasonable. Plus I myself believe strongly in the Christian message and practice, although I am not strictly a believer in the Christian orthodoxy. I am more of a skeptic, actually - but I go along because in the big picture I see it all as important. It IS also true that some of the great resisters of the Nazis were Christians, so I do think there is something going on in what you say.
I think you're onto something. However, in my direct experience, some of the most obedient followers of the lockdown/masking instructions and injection mandates were Sunday churchgoing people who study the bible regularly, who say grace before meals; people who would be normally classified as "Christians." I propose there is a finer factor at work than just being a Christian.
Thanks for this... have always loved that quote by Chesterton “When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything.”
The late Alberta (Conservative) Premier Ralph Klein once said that abortion should be between a woman, her doctor, and her God. Yet now that "God is dead" for so much of the modern generation, the third limb of that triangular guardrail is simply gone. As you point out, the "God-shaped hole" has been plugged by ideological nonsense, with tragic consequences.
All that aside, I'm not sure I subscribe to the premise that Christians aren't susceptible to group-think. Take for instance the American evangelical Christian community's undying support of Donald Trump: regardless of your politics (and I for one am certainly no fan of Joe Biden), it's astounding to me that "Christians" collectively have offered their staunch backing to this vulgar, "grab 'em by the pussy", insult factory. Christianity's precepts are nowhere more aptly summed up than in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount — and I'm pretty sure I know what Jesus would say about a man like Trump.
The "ends justify the means" argument comes up here — he overturned Roe v. Wade! We can't have Hilary or Biden! — but the ends never justify the means. It was possible, still is possible, to vote for a Trump candidacy while loudly denouncing his shortcomings and behaviour, given the alternatives on offer. But there are no denunciations, only slavish support, and therefore explicit and implicit endorsement of the man's thoroughly un-Christian behaviour.
And I daresay it's been an enormous advertisement to non-Christians that the faith in practice is utter nonsense. Karma, as we all know, is an absolute bitch.
I recently watched a movie - or should I say I watched half of it - called “Captain Fantastic” because it’s a story about a family that went off the grid and I thought it was so relevant to today. The movie was released in 2017 and made sometime before that. I was immediately struck by how wrong they got it - the family were basically Marxists and they openly made fun of Christians. As we now see, it’s the Marxists given to group think, not the Christians. Even as recently as 2017 I would never have imagined it, but Christians are now and - since the original 12 - have always been the true rebels. Thank you for this insightful article.
Like that "hot and cold" game I played as a kid, you're getting warmer! These last few years, in particular, have driven many of us to re-examine our beliefs. For me, as a Christian, I became even more convinced of the supremacy, goodness, and truth of God as revealed in the Bible. For many members of my community who aren't Christians or had rejected Christianity ears ago, watching our culture implode has caused them to start asking questions about Jesus. It's awesome to see and be part of. Looking forward to Part 2 :)
Excellent read, look forward to part 2, for myself an outspoken Christian/freedom warrior when one has hope in the form of salvation, healing and redemption, knowing God has already won this battle, he has got our back at all times as "he sees us" so we must continue to be his warriors of the light, sharing your gifts and talents bestowed from God to HELP AND AWAKEN the masses from the DISINFORMATION/MISINFORMATION, history does repeat itself and unfortunately FEAR by times DID and does take hold for many including some in the church body believing the lie, evil is good, good is evil, the enemy is distorting GOD'S TRUTH replacing it with continual lies that humanity does not need God, or there is no God, you are God and many other misconceptions so thus filling the mind with doubt, denial and being deceived to remember that in the beginning from chaos God created this earth and everything in it all with order, the universe is order, God, the son and Holy spirit, order in the God made family unit, Husband, wife and child and then order in the church as we see the triune God Jesus, the Leaders and their flock; however, the enemy has taken that order and twisted it with lies, confusion turning it back to chaos, destroying all that is good making one believe "did God really say that? or mean that, you don't need that etcetera. Bottom line, God knows the beginning middle and end of the story, so I stay focused knowing that he has got this to the end of time and I am at peace in the midst of the crazy.
I believe in this tradition of Christian faith we may discern the difference between faith in Christ and faith in Churchianity. The latter locked down, masked up, social distanced and hugged vaccination like a totem.
Wonderful, very enlightening, bless your heart, I am delighted you have noticed the Christian connection. Personally I was deeply distressed that more of the churches did not stand up. Seeing police cars rolling in to church yards to stop people meeting for worship honestly shocked me to my core. Thank you for this Substack, I look forward to part 2.
In a world where people change their “truth” as often as I change my underwear, the Bible is the one thing that I can trust to be true now and true later. I don’t necessarily “love” everything I read ie. turn the other cheek, but it is true and it will go better for me if I obey God in this instance. As christians we obey God first, then the govt. That is why the govt hates us. Our loyalty should be to our creator first. We are also called to stand up for what is right and I just knew “something” was off when we were called to “two weeks to flatten the curve” and then after that nothing made sense anymore. I was surprised at those who were so fearful. I guess because of my relationship with God, I don’t fear death. I don’t have a death wish; I am just not afraid to die when it is my time. After all everyone WILL die eventually so really we must get ready for it. Like Martin Luther said “if you have nothing worth dying for then you have nothing worth living for” (or something like that ). I will talk about Jesus until I take my last breath and if that happens to be in jail because the government doesnt like my lifestyle, my thoughts or what I say then so be it.
Thanks for the kind words. I think the Christian underpinnings might be that we were upset by the actual cruelty of the mandates and edicts from public health. I know that Jay, Francis and I were bonded by our horror of what was being done to people. For me, that was even bigger than the scientific corruption. So, I wonder if that is part of it. Anyway -- keep on going with the writing and good works.
Great article Pairodocs!. Maybe there is a sector of society (older) who were raised as Christian. Today the younger generation have given up on church and moral teachings. They have replaced going to church with going to Starbucks and relating to one another via their Iphones and other technology. They are more interested in their 'friends' on Facebook and Instagram and how many likes they can get by telling their vacation stories or daily issues. In other words, they have lost connection to what is really important - each other. Going to church gave that community spirit. Now they just burn them down because of what they stand for. It is well beyond disturbing. Trudeau's "understanding" comment was basically a go ahead and do it, attitude. :(
I am with Jen Adams. Hebrews 11 , the hall of faith, they were sawn in half etc.
as an adult convert I have had 30 plus years of being the odd man out in my family, going to church Sunday, teaching my children different values. My extended family never respected it. It was always the edge of rejection so Covid was another level but something I had already practiced for decades. Also, Trudeau put in a law in 2016 that denied pro-life groups summer student funding and has been so dogmatic on abortion that I already didn’t trust him and he has two standards for bodily autonomy. Abortion for any woman any time but get a vaccine or be locked out of society. I felt it my duty to stand against that. I too know there are things worth dying for. I hope not to but if necessary God will give me the strength
I don't understand why it is so hard to divine that rational consciousness is a gift of the divine ...
That our shared humanity is a wonderful thing, and that altruism which places rationality above empathy and human connection is a step on the path toward an inhuman collective.
If you're going to be inspired to follow one man, why not Jesus? If the divine is real, why are Christian claims impossible?
(This is I think a roadlock for many, especially the young and progressive and idealistic ... If the divine is true, and your parents and ancestors knew this, then knowledge is inherently conservative! And the world is truly corrupt beyond the power of the collective to fix it. Maybe this mortal life, of great significance to each of us in the here and now, is not the most important.)
Thanks as always for this excellent piece. I think since my childhood in the 60s Christians have had to face contempt and ridicule from many in society, especially youth, and hence had to be strong to stay true to their beliefs. Church burning and the conflating of 'settler' and colonial abuses with Christianity continue here, whilst in Nigeria for example there is an islamic genocide of Christians going on, involving government troops and herdsmen....claims of 200 murdered in Jan alone, 150,000 since 2009 and over 20,000 buildings destroyed in the last couple of years as they are killed, enslaved or driven off the land......and barely a peep from the established church leaders. (Actually probably that 'barely' is unnecessary.) There is also the issue that quite a few of us have returned to belief via the argument that satan certainly exists as the only explanation of what is happening in the world today...ergo so does God!
I've experienced the same thing in my efforts to raise awareness and help for the vaccine-injured: I find myself surrounded by Christians in this work.
And yet, I look around at prominent Christian leaders and they are not here. Not those who embraced Francis Collins and still laud him for "humility" for admitting (but not correcting) "mistakes" that ruined people's lives. Not those who promoted getting vaccinated as a way of loving our neighbors, but are silent about the devastation caused by these products. And not even those who pushed to open churches and resisted government control, but stopped short of advocating for the injured.
They all walk by on the other side of the road, instead of stopping to help, as Jesus commanded us to do in the good Samaritan parable.
That teaching should be in the forefront in the minds of Christ-followers because his two big commands are to love God and love our neighbors. Jesus clarified the latter for a lawyer, who wanted to parse the definition of "neighbor." He taught the concept with a parable about an outsider stopping to help a man who had been attacked by robbers and left for dead, while the religious insiders --concerned about propriety and personal cleanliness-- walked by on the other side of the road and did not help.
The message is not "be an insider, don't get involved if it might be messy or personally costly to help."
The message is:
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the
hands of robbers?"
The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
I'm so grateful for the individual Christians who see and help our neighbors injured by products passed off as vaccines and lies passed off as policy.
And I'm also completely out of patience with the Christian leaders who continue to walk on the other side of the road, unrepentant and unmerciful even now. As a united force, Christians could break the politicized stigma around vaccine injuries and other pandemic harms by demanding truth, justice, and mercy for our neighbors and for us all.
Where do they think that road is taking them? By ignoring devastation, they choose to support the ones who caused it instead of loving God's precious people, weeping with those who weep, ending oppression, and caring for those harmed by injustice.
Nice. Good analysis. I am a church-goer, and believe strongly in focusing on gratitude and the Golden Rule. Always have. I am also an independent thinker. I don't personally see being a 'believer' alone as the cause of independent thinking, I have seen plenty of Christian fundamentalist types over the years be entirely unreasonable. Plus I myself believe strongly in the Christian message and practice, although I am not strictly a believer in the Christian orthodoxy. I am more of a skeptic, actually - but I go along because in the big picture I see it all as important. It IS also true that some of the great resisters of the Nazis were Christians, so I do think there is something going on in what you say.
I think you're onto something. However, in my direct experience, some of the most obedient followers of the lockdown/masking instructions and injection mandates were Sunday churchgoing people who study the bible regularly, who say grace before meals; people who would be normally classified as "Christians." I propose there is a finer factor at work than just being a Christian.
Thanks for this... have always loved that quote by Chesterton “When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything.”
The late Alberta (Conservative) Premier Ralph Klein once said that abortion should be between a woman, her doctor, and her God. Yet now that "God is dead" for so much of the modern generation, the third limb of that triangular guardrail is simply gone. As you point out, the "God-shaped hole" has been plugged by ideological nonsense, with tragic consequences.
All that aside, I'm not sure I subscribe to the premise that Christians aren't susceptible to group-think. Take for instance the American evangelical Christian community's undying support of Donald Trump: regardless of your politics (and I for one am certainly no fan of Joe Biden), it's astounding to me that "Christians" collectively have offered their staunch backing to this vulgar, "grab 'em by the pussy", insult factory. Christianity's precepts are nowhere more aptly summed up than in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount — and I'm pretty sure I know what Jesus would say about a man like Trump.
The "ends justify the means" argument comes up here — he overturned Roe v. Wade! We can't have Hilary or Biden! — but the ends never justify the means. It was possible, still is possible, to vote for a Trump candidacy while loudly denouncing his shortcomings and behaviour, given the alternatives on offer. But there are no denunciations, only slavish support, and therefore explicit and implicit endorsement of the man's thoroughly un-Christian behaviour.
And I daresay it's been an enormous advertisement to non-Christians that the faith in practice is utter nonsense. Karma, as we all know, is an absolute bitch.
I recently watched a movie - or should I say I watched half of it - called “Captain Fantastic” because it’s a story about a family that went off the grid and I thought it was so relevant to today. The movie was released in 2017 and made sometime before that. I was immediately struck by how wrong they got it - the family were basically Marxists and they openly made fun of Christians. As we now see, it’s the Marxists given to group think, not the Christians. Even as recently as 2017 I would never have imagined it, but Christians are now and - since the original 12 - have always been the true rebels. Thank you for this insightful article.
Like that "hot and cold" game I played as a kid, you're getting warmer! These last few years, in particular, have driven many of us to re-examine our beliefs. For me, as a Christian, I became even more convinced of the supremacy, goodness, and truth of God as revealed in the Bible. For many members of my community who aren't Christians or had rejected Christianity ears ago, watching our culture implode has caused them to start asking questions about Jesus. It's awesome to see and be part of. Looking forward to Part 2 :)
I have not read this book, but I suspect it might help you answer your questions - https://www.christianbook.com/not-by-lies-manual-christian-dissidents/rod-dreher/9780593087398/pd/087392?utm_source=bing&kw=live%20not%20by%20lies%20rod%20dreher&mt=p&dv=c&event=PPCSRC&p=1229944&cb_src=bing&cb_typ=search&cb_cmp=70217456&cb_adg=1239149830706605&cb_kyw=live%20not%20by%20lies%20rod%20dreher&msclkid=0c9f533f9e9f1dd9a2f536e9b24c9492&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Titles&utm_term=live%20not%20by%20lies%20rod%20dreher&utm_content=live%20not%20by%20lies
Excellent read, look forward to part 2, for myself an outspoken Christian/freedom warrior when one has hope in the form of salvation, healing and redemption, knowing God has already won this battle, he has got our back at all times as "he sees us" so we must continue to be his warriors of the light, sharing your gifts and talents bestowed from God to HELP AND AWAKEN the masses from the DISINFORMATION/MISINFORMATION, history does repeat itself and unfortunately FEAR by times DID and does take hold for many including some in the church body believing the lie, evil is good, good is evil, the enemy is distorting GOD'S TRUTH replacing it with continual lies that humanity does not need God, or there is no God, you are God and many other misconceptions so thus filling the mind with doubt, denial and being deceived to remember that in the beginning from chaos God created this earth and everything in it all with order, the universe is order, God, the son and Holy spirit, order in the God made family unit, Husband, wife and child and then order in the church as we see the triune God Jesus, the Leaders and their flock; however, the enemy has taken that order and twisted it with lies, confusion turning it back to chaos, destroying all that is good making one believe "did God really say that? or mean that, you don't need that etcetera. Bottom line, God knows the beginning middle and end of the story, so I stay focused knowing that he has got this to the end of time and I am at peace in the midst of the crazy.
I believe in this tradition of Christian faith we may discern the difference between faith in Christ and faith in Churchianity. The latter locked down, masked up, social distanced and hugged vaccination like a totem.