Editorial: It's time for Christian leaders to repent of their support for medical coercion.
Vaccine mandates are unjust and ineffective and Christian leaders who coerced others need to repent
Editorial: It's time for Christian leaders to repent of their support for medical coercion.
VACCINE MANDATES
Vaccines ineffective and harmful.
In Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, the vaccine employment mandates continue. They continue also for health workers and aged workers still in the other States and Territories.
This, despite the fact we know now that we were lied to about:
the ability of lockdowns to stop the virus (“Two weeks to flatten the curve”)
the vaccine’s efficacy to stop infection and symptoms from occurring; in fact, it seems from the British, Canadian and Danish data and from many anecdotal accounts now that people who were vaccinated are not only suffering from many side effects and increased deaths of all causes but are getting long Covid, when those who were unvaccinated have recovered.
the ability of the vaccine to stop the spread of the virus. (“Once we achieve 80% vaccination rate the mandates will end”)
the many harmful side effects, particularly of the Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson mRNA vaccines, for which trials showing harmful side effects were actively suppressed, but also of the vaccines containing the whole Spike protein, for which the myocarditis rates are as high or higher then the mRNA vaccines.
Furthermore, the fact that the Covid vaccines were experimental cannot be refuted, particularly the mRNA vaccines, which were entirely new gene therapy and never received more than provisional approval. Note that the Nuremberg Code, which is the standard for ethics in medical experimentation, condemns coercion.
The procedure to get experimental medications approved involves stage 1, 2, 3 trials, of which stage 3 is longitudinal; the whole process takes 7-12 years; and the burden of proof is upon the company and the regulators putting forward the experimental medication to prove that it is safe and effective: in a stage 3 trial every adverse event is usually to be treated as if the medication caused it, regardless of whether or not causation can be proved or the process of causation understood1.
Nonetheless, even if everything that I have just stated was untrue, the vaccine mandates would still be unjust.
Vaccine mandates are unconstitutional.
One reason they are unjust is because the vaccine mandates are clearly unconstitutional in Australia, despite the decision of the Fair Work Commission in September 20212.
The constitution plainly disallows any ‘medical conscription’ in Section 51 (xxiiiA).
Section 51 (xxiiiA) the provision of maternity allowances, widows' pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services (but not so as to authorize any form of civil conscription), benefits to students and family allowances;
The meaning of the phrase civil conscription has already been decided in the 95 page High Court ruling, British Medical Association v Commonwealth [1949] HCA 44; (1949) 79 CLR 201 (7 October 1949) page 293 and makes it abundantly clear that indirect or direct means of medical coercion are illegal.
New Zealand has a similar assertion in their constitution and it was recently decided by their High Court that their mandates contradict section 11 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act which deals with the right to bodily integrity.
This may be why our Christian Prime Minister and other politicians keep repeating the absolute lie that there is no coercion in Australia, that everyone has freedom of choice about what they put in their bodies, and that Australia is not a country that coerces people to take medical treatments; it sounds like a marketing man’s way of diverting attention from the real issue3: that the government knows these mandates are unconstitutional and has been hoping that no one notices it has flagrantly flouted the law.
Churches heavily implicated in wrongdoing.
Now, despite the preceding paragraph implicating our Prime Minister, this article is not primarily addressed to secular organisations, but to churches and church organisations, church leaders, and leaders in secular society who claim to be Christians.
For I believe that many churches and church schools, Christian hospitals, aged care centres, and charities are presently under God’s judgement because they have followed these employment vaccine mandates in a Pharisaic attempt to avoid the cross of Christ, by obeying the law of men as a way of giving lip-service to God.
And I believe this can be proven from scripture.
Leviticus 13
Many of us are aware that where on the one hand Jesus places an ideal law of love before us in the New Testament – for instance, Jesus says do not take revenge on those who wrong you but rather bless your enemies and pray for those who persecute you – the Old Testament instead placed strictures on people’s behaviour to limit evil behaviour to what is fair and just. For instance, Exodus 21:23–25 tells us what the just limit to lawful vengeance is;
But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life— eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.
Similarly, the Old Testament places limits on other evils; a curious example is the commandments relating to laying siege to a city.
When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them? Deuteronomy 20:19-20
However, the limits to quarantine in the Jewish law is the example relevant to our present discussion. Acknowledging that people sometimes get sick with infectious diseases, Leviticus 13 tells what measures must be taken to quarantine a person sick with leprosy; part of the responsibility of quarantine belongs to the person themselves.
A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp. Leviticus 13:45-46
It is noteworthy that if a person is found to be well, it explicitly says in Leviticus 13:36-37 that they may not be quarantined, if there are no symptoms:
…the priest is to examine them, and if he finds that the sore has spread in the skin, he does not need to look for yellow hair; they are unclean. If, however, the sore is unchanged so far as the priest can see, and if black hair has grown in it, the affected person is healed. They are clean, and the priest shall pronounce them clean.
In other words, the Old Testament law proscribes the limits of quarantine.
People who are not sick or symptomatic are not allowed to be quarantined.
The Hebrew Midwives
Another passage in the Old Testament tells us the limits of obedience to government. A new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph comes to power in Egypt.
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”
So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own. Exodus 1:13-21
This tells us the limits to obedience to civil authorities. When the authorities tell us to do harm, it is right to resist them; indeed, the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah are actually commended for lying in order to protect the innocent.
God considered it more important for the Hebrew midwives to resist an evil government that was commanding them to do harm, than to always tell the truth.
Vaccine Mandates
In the last three to six months, vaccine mandates prohibiting those who have not been vaccinated with the experimental Covid vaccines from attending work have come into force in all the States and Territories in Australia, to varying degrees.
Industries in Western Australia that are affected include, of course, the health and aged care sectors, but also the education sector, transport and delivery, mining, and the building sector. In fact, at the moment nearly every job one might apply for includes a requirement to be vaccinated with a Covid vaccination.
These mandates have been use to coerce workers into taking a harmful, experimental vaccine.
When questioned on why they have cooperated with the mandates and fired their unvaccinated workers, I have heard many Christian employers use the excuse that they cannot afford the fines, so they have to fire their workers. In Western Australia the fine for an employer who continues to employ an unvaccinated person in an industry where the mandates are in force is $100,000. The worker him/herself receives a lesser fine.
Using the excuse that they cannot afford a fine, and the excuse of following the law of the land (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17), many or most Christian institutions in Western Australia have put their unvaccinated workers on unpaid leave or fired them unjustly, and coerced their other workers to take the vaccine.
Despite the mask mandates, social distancing and Covid app mandates being dropped two weeks ago in Western Australia, the employment mandates have remained.
Negative consequences are not an excuse for disobeying God
Negative consequences are not an excuse for disobeying God by cooperating with those who are harming others.
Considering that it is against God’s law to quarantine a person who is not ill, the least a Christian employer should have done in these circumstances is to have continued to pay their workers, even if they disallowed them from coming to work.
Considering that many people have been warning that the vaccines do more harm than good, and these warnings were right – we’ve all witnessed the harm caused to many who have taken the vaccines and the lack of protection they afford against Covid – Christian employers ought to have at least respected the wishes of those who refused vaccination, even if they disagreed, and they should have expended some effort to find out if the warnings were accurate.
If they knew the warnings were true they should have put their unvaccinated workers on paid leave and protested the unjust government mandates.
Instead Churches and Christian schools and hospitals laid off their unvaccinated workers, who were in fact exercising their legal and ethical right to not be experimented on. Not only did they do this, in many cases they failed even to give them any follow-up, such as a single phone call in many cases, to find out if they are okay. And they ignored the warnings of many people that these mandates are unjust and the vaccines are unsafe.
The Epistle of James
To deny a person fair wages is clearly one level of wrong-doing.
To deny them the ability to earn a living is another level of wickedness entirely, and during the last six months the churches and Christian businesses have become collaborators with the state in perpetrating a great injustice towards innocent people who have done nothing more than exercise their constitutional right to refuse an experimental medical treatment.
To threaten them with the denial of their ability to earn a living in order to coerce them into taking an experimental gene therapy is to do all of their employees even greater harm. These Christian employers have sinned against every employee who has been coerced into being vaccinated.
And the motivation for this is very clear: it was not obedience to scripture. It was not obedience to government as dictated by scripture.
I have heard people in some churches say, “Where has the anointing gone? Why isn’t God hearing our prayers?” “Why don’t we have revival?”
The epistle of James might contain the answer.
Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you. Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire.
You have hoarded treasure in the last days. Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. James 5:1-4
Responsibility for the harm done by the vaccine
The responsibility for the harm done by the vaccines to those who have taken them – to name just a few, myopericarditis, fertility problems, probable immune deficiency, chronic exhaustion, and in many cases, death – will surely be laid at the feet of the churches, Christian schools, Christian hospitals, pastors, business owners, managers and administrators who enforced and supported the employment mandates and thereby coerced their employees to take the vaccines; they must not think that God will not hold them responsible for coercing people to take the vaccine. They were obeying the unjust, illegal mandates of state and federal governments that were defying the Constitution - and many leaders could not be bothered even examining the evidence put forward by those questioning the party line on all these issues - deep repentance is needed.
Christian Doctors, nurses and pharmacists who have encouraged people to get vaccinated need to acknowledge their own responsibility too, to speak up when they knew the truth, to risk their jobs and their livelihoods for the sake of others. After all, Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Churches and Christian businesses ought to have protected their workers, both those who were fired, and those who were coerced into being vaccinated – they ought to have protested against the Government mandates – they ought to have refused to fire their workers who were not vaccinated - they ought to have protected those to whom they owed a duty of care, their employees.
Christian schools in particular that coerced or encouraged students to be vaccinated will be held responsible by God for the harm caused. Do these leaders take God seriously? If they do then the leaders of these schools need to repent.
The Hebrew Midwives risked a lot more than the Christian leaders in Australia
If the Hebrew midwives had been discovered to have been lying by the Pharaoh, they may well have been executed. Rather than harm the children in their care, they lied to the government of their day and protected the children. This begs the question - whether Christian businesses ought to have lied to the government about whether or not their workers were vaccinated. To be commended by God, Christian churches and charities and schools and hospital should have risked the fines by not firing unvaccinated workers and not pressuring any workers in any way to take the vaccines. But I think if they were unwilling to publicly protest the mandates, they should have at least been willing to lie to the government about the vaccination status of their workers in order to allow them to continue working, and so that others in the workplace did not feel coerced.
The Hebrew midwives, without the promise of Christ, nonetheless risked execution at the hands of an unjust Pharaoh.
Christian businesses feared a fine.
The Hebrew midwives, without the explicit promise of resurrection from the dead, risked their lives.
Christian businesses, run by Christians who have the promise of God’s provision in Matthew 6:25-34 and Luke 12:22-31, feared losing money.
This shows clearly where the heart of Christian leaders, business owners, school principals and hospital administrators is. It is centred on money. It is a fine thing to dress up materialistic motivations in the outward garb of obeying scripture by saying I am just obeying the government - sarcastically speaking - this is just as fine as being a whitewashed wall.
Jesus says clearly that no one can follow two masters. Christian businesses who fired their workers rather than risk a fine were following mammon, and not God.
Those workers who were fired ought to be reinstated with back pay to cover their losses. Where they have lost homes or rental accomodations, church organisations ought to be using their own resources to make good the losses.
An apology ought to be offered to those who were coerced into taking the vaccine and then suffered ill effects, and to the families of those who died.
Repentance is necessary.
Reconciliation is necessary.
Restitution will please God.
The repentance should start with our Christian Prime Minister, whose mouth recently has been full of lies, saying that we are not a nation that coerces people to take medical treatments, when clearly that is what has been happening.
Christian nurses who vaccinated children.
It is very clear by now that the Covid vaccines do a great deal more harm to children, particularly teenaged boys and young men, than the good they do.
In the light of the story of the Hebrew midwives, Christian nurses ought to think carefully about to whom they owe their loyalty and allegiance.
This has been a very clear violation of the Hippocratic oath.
Is ignorance of the facts an excuse?
Only a person’s own conscience can answer this question. But if they refused to listen to those who were warning them, if they refused to read about or research the other side of these issues when that option was given them, if they refused to even think about whether the government might be wrong, perhaps they need to repent of this too.
But I think the real reason many Christian businesses didn’t want to defy the government is quite simple, for this is the particular reason I have been told more than once when I questioned why Christian businesses enforced the unjust mandates even when they professedly didn’t want to lay off their unvaccinated workers: they feared the fine.
They loved money and security more than God and did not believe God would provide for them if they defied the government and did the right thing. Romans 13 was just an excuse.
The coming judgement
All hidden things will come under God’s judgement. Now is the time for Christian leaders and employers to turn their lives around and turn back to God. Deep repentance is needed in the Christian churches, schools, hospitals and businesses, for the harm and injustice that has been done to many, many people because of their love for money.
Where a Christian organisation has offended in this matter, the first thing they ought to do is apologise and seek the forgiveness of those they have offended against; their employees who were fired, and particularly their employees who were forced to take the vaccine; particularly in the cases where these people were injured by the vaccine. This they need to do regardless of legal advice as to possible liability, because it’s the right thing to do.
Furthermore they need to reemploy those they fired, regardless of mandates or rules or threats of fines, as well as giving them restitution for any period without pay. Do Christian employers not believe that God will provide? Do they not believe in prayer? Do they not believe that God will judge if they don’t do what is just?
For it’s very clear now that the vaccines were ineffective and harmful. But even if they weren’t, these mandates were unjust and will be seen by all, in the end, to have been illegal and unconstitutional.
You may ask, why I’m not saying that secular leaders need to repent? Because if the church, which has the riches of scripture and the counsels of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and the traditions handed down by the elders through the ages (2 Thess. 2:15, παραδόσεις), and the wisdom of God in Christ, cannot get this right, how could we possibly expect anyone else in our country to know the right way to go?
There needs to be repentance by Christian leaders in this land, both in the church and the secular realm, from the Prime Minister and the Christian Governors, and the leaders of the churches down, who did nothing to oppose these injustices when they were happening and who believed the lie.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14
Addendum: 3 June 2022 - the Western Australian mandates are ending
The mandates are ending for everyone in Western Australia except health workers. It remains to be seen whether this is actually an end to the mandates or not: an email from the Education Department of Western Australia to their staff indicates that disciplinary proceedings will be continuing.
I believe in the long run this will rebound badly on the Education Department.
In the meantime the injustice to Doctors and Nurses and other health workers continues.
That this procedure was not followed was obvious right from the start and Christian leaders who counseled others to get vaccinated and did not know these elementary facts about the process of making pharmaceuticals are responsible for their ignorance. This ignorance of facts, by the way, is a troubling sign of a growing tendency towards gnosticism in the evangelical church, which disregards our existence in the physical world where knowledge of facts is actually important, and is not something I want to go into in this article now; nonetheless it is a point that requires reflection from leaders who simply swallowed the party-line claims about the vaccines and did not avail themselves of knowledge that even a simple Wikipedia search could have provided.
Considering that the chair of the Fair Work Commission, Judge Dean, dissented from the decision of the other two judges, this cannot be seen as a unanimous legal decision or an issue without troubling questions around it.
Perhaps he thinks everyone will believe the lie if he repeats it often enough.