My Line in the Sand

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GUEST POST – Scott Kennedy

I am not an emotional person. In the last 20 years of life, I believe I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have wept. Not that I think this is a virtue, it just seems part of my temperament. But twice in the last week, I have been so upset – distraught even – that I have wept.

Vaccine mandates. Our government went back on its word and has issued a vaccine mandate for all teachers. This is my line in the sand. But drawing this line is crushing me for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I have worked as a teacher for a decade in a full-time capacity and many more years than that in part-time roles. I am totally invested in the school that I work for and have given my time, my energy and even my money to help that school thrive and flourish. While I am not perhaps the most inspiring, interesting or creative teacher, I love my students, and I think they know I am committed to them and desirous of their success. My ex-students keep in touch. This is the area of life that God has gifted me in. I can teach. I can’t build. I’m not physically strong. I’m not able to do techy things. I’m pretty ordinary really. But teaching I can do. And the government with one edict from their Lectern of Lies has taken my livelihood away from me.

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Sign this Petition for Freedom

For all lovers of freedom out there. The government has signalled that there will be a decision around mandatory vaccinations for teachers on Monday. Many of us have a religious objection to this vaccination. For some, they object that fetal cell lines were used in the testing of the vaccine. For others, they do not believe the government has a legitimate right to force the choice of a vaccine on people while threatening them with the loss of their livelihood. Even if you think we are religious nutters or crazy anti-vaxxers (I’m not!), for the love of your fellow citizens and the freedom we once had in New Zealand, you should support the right of others to refuse this vaccine as a matter of conscience. We ought not to lose our livelihoods over a matter of conscience.

Please sign and pass this on to everyone you know.

To Obey or Not Obey?

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The chickens are coming home to roost. The church has experienced weeks of ‘online church’, we face (pun intended) the possibility of forced masking in worship as well as vaccine passports for worship services. Look at the Bill of Rights. Our liberties have been stripped from us. Our right to refuse medical treatment is under threat, our right to freedom of thought, conscience, privacy and religion is imperiled. Our right to peaceful assembly is gone. As are the rights to freedom of association, movement and freedom from discrimination.

The time for decisions is here. The trouble is, our collective Christian minds are creaky and stiff from disuse. Our body, feminine, soft and nurturing in form, but lacking the complementary male strength and roughness of virtues such as courage due to a matriarchal dominance of the church (often in spite of male leaders), is frozen in a semi-recumbent position. What will we do? Well, the women of both sexes will bleat on their social media platforms about doing the right thing and rail at any Christians who awaken enough from slumber to question whether we are in fact in the beginnings of a living totalitarian nightmare. “Obey the Government! Romans 13!” exclaim these newly minted experts in theology who, with their theological position, could no doubt justify yellow stars with the word Jude written in fancy lettering vaccine passports.

Since our minds are seized shut from lack of use and no call of action will get us to actually do anything, we’ll resort to one of our favourite feel-good pastimes. We’ll sing. But we’ll avoid the old hymns of the faith. It’s a bit hard to sing “Stand up for Jesus” when that might require backbone. We’ll no doubt sing lustily some inane and trite modern evangelopop. How about “Who the Son sets free, Oh, is free indeed”? But we’ll do it from our living rooms wearing a mask hoping the State will set us free once the population has been compliant enough and buckled under the State’s loving#kindness.

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Theology of Government and COVID – Part 4

Welcome to part four of this series looking at a Biblical theology of government and certain applications to our current cultural moment. For links to the other installments, see the list below.

  1. Principle #1 – Civil Governments have a Legitimate Authority
  2. Principle #2 – Civil Governments have a Limited Authority
  3. Principle #3 – Theocracy is Inescapable
  4. Principles Applied
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Theology of Government and COVID – Part 3

Welcome to part three of this series looking at a Biblical theology of government and certain applications to our current cultural moment. For links to the other installments, see the list below.

  1. Principle #1 – Civil Governments have a Legitimate Authority
  2. Principle #2 – Civil Governments have a Limited Authority
  3. Principle #3 – Theocracy is Inescapable
  4. Principles Applied

In today’s episode, we are looking at the third principle and thinking about the fact that all nations are, in fact, theocracies. The question is, which God is in charge?

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What’s Happening in Australia

COVID has shown how fragile our rights are as citizens. We’ve been locked in our houses. We’ve been told where we can go and for what reason. We’re forced to wear dirty rags that hinder our breathing if we want to enter shops or public buildings. Some of us have been told we’ll lose our jobs unless we get vaccinated and to hell with ‘my body my choice.’ And if you have the temerity to protest these totalitarian developments, you get to see the not so kind face of this new totalitarianism. Thankfully there are some media organisations who are showing truthfully what is happening.