The thirteenth album in our series showing our brothers and sisters in Christ gathering for church service as faithful believers. While going to church does not make one a believer, refusing to faithfully attend a local church should seriously call that faith into question. This is a glimpse of what the global church is up to, and will feature images in chronological order, week to week, of the men and women being obedient to the scriptures. As always, click to enlarge.
For our multi-volume series showing the progression of the Church worldwide experiencing the lockdown and pandemic, from March 2020- July 2021, click here.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, the acclaimed scientist, geneticist, and professing Christian, released a statement several months ago for PRIDE month, where he publically revealed himself to be thoroughly compromised on the Christian’s view of LGBTQ issues and the scriptures, offering them his personal support as an “ally” and regurgitating all the progressive talking points while using progressive language that those interested in tearing down the biblical view of family have.
The (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government and is responsible for biomedical and public health research, compromised of nearly 20,000 employees and having an annual budget of 42 billion dollars. For this reason, it is no surprise that the organization might issue a woke statement, using “we” language to represent everyone as a matter of policy. They certainly have a media relations team that would put out such a statement.
Yet Collins’s letter is personal. We don’t know why he felt he had to release a statement in the first place, but even if he as the Director was being pressured to and he was forced to under penalty of losing his job, he personalizes it using “I” rather than “we,” saying among other things:
I applaud the courage and resilience it takes for individuals to live openly and authentically
As a White cisgender and heterosexual man, I have not had the same experiences, but I am committed to listening, respecting, and supporting those individuals as an ally and advocate.
I know that developing allyship is critical as we continue to make NIH, and the world, a more inclusive place for all.
For that reason, I am excited to share this year’s Pride theme, Allyship in Action
To address this need, I am proud to announce that NIH recently funded a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus study to review current measures and methodological issues related to measuring sex as a non-binary construct.
I hope that you join me this Pride Month in exemplifying allyship and celebrating the broad diversity of SGM communities.
There is one thing about working for an organization that puts out statements in support of so-called “sexual minorities” that celebrates sexual perversions of God’s design for men and women. It’s another thing to personally go out of your way to ensure that your public statements are as far as a view from Romans 1 as possible, all the while crowing about how proud you are of them.
We are quickly discovering that the beliefs of Francis Collins, one of the world’s leading geneticists, scientists and professing Christians, are more thoroughly compromised than we imagined (including his views of Pride Month and LGBTQ) Collins is the Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the founder of BioLogos, the self-described “Christian organization” that seeks to bridge the bible and evolution while insisting that humans evolved from apes 200,000 years ago and that Adam and Eve never actually existed.
In an interview with Ed Stetzer, who tried to smuggle him in as an authoritative voice Christians should be listening to, Collins informs Stetzer that it’s more important that kids have in-person school than adults and kids have in-person church.
Stetzer: If kids need in-person school, and we don’t have any clear end to this pandemic, do people need in-person church? Are there ways to do this more safely?
Collins:The consequences of missing out on that personal interaction for educational progress, for social interactions, just for human development as a child are really significant. Those of us who are adults that are missing our church gathering, we’re suffering too. But if I have to make a priority, it’s getting those kids in school is even higher in my list...
…It troubles me greatly, that somehow we’ve gotten in this big political debate about whether masks need to be worn in school for kids under 12, who can’t be vaccinated, who could therefore get infected and could then spread it to others. If we don’t have mask wearing in school, it’s guaranteed we’re going to have outbreaks and then the kids will be back home again, doing the virtual thing that we were trying to avoid. Really too bad that it’s turned into such a strange argument that’s going on… In special circumstances, especially if your church can meet outside, well, take advantage of that because we know it’s safer. Otherwise, if there was an absolutely critical need, keep that physical distance and insist that everybody wear masks.
Stetzer: What I’m not sure I’m on the same place as the esteemed Dr. Francis Collins is, if kids need in-person school and we can take appropriate mitigations, why don’t we also say that we need in-person church? You’ve been a Christian a long time, you know, they’re gonna have to quote the verses to you, but people want me to quote the verses to you. But you know the verses. Church is not just about electrons and avatars, it’s about feet and faces. If we can have kids sitting in desks and follow mitigations, can we do that in church?
Collins: We can do it. And again, the question is, what’s the risk? And how strongly do we feel that that risk is worth taking? If Christ’s strongest recommendation to us; how love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, we’re supposed to use our mind about this. And of course, the next is the commandment love your neighbor as yourself. This is a ‘love your neighbor’ circumstance.
Because if you are gathering in person, in a church, even being careful about it, there may be somebody sitting there who’s got an immune deficiency, maybe they know it, maybe they don’t. And then that individual, despite thinking they were protected, turns out to get COVID, ends up in the ICU and maybe loses their life.
So how do we balance that risk, which is not zero, against the deep desire that we all have to gather together?What is God calling us to do in that circumstance? I guess I come back to love your neighbor. And if I’m doing something that I think might be putting my neighbor at risk, then I’m worried about moving in that direction.
Collins concludes by explaining that if he were the ‘king of evangelicals” overseeing the churches who insist on meeting in person, he would “certainly continuing to insist on mask-wearing for everybody vaccinated or unvaccinated physical distancing, trying to maintain that six-foot distance” and explains that the most dangerous part of a service is afterward, where everyone wants to stop and greet and hug each other.
(Lifesite News) The threat of fines and possible imprisonment will not deter over 70 Christian churches in Canada from defying COVID lockdowns and holding religious services on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The churches have vowed to open for Easter services “to stand together in unity and to oppose further lockdowns.”
All churches involved have signed on to Liberty Coalition Canada’s (LCC) “We Will Gather Easter 2021” initiative. To date, eight Canadian provinces are represented: Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
In some provinces, such as British Columbia, indoor church services are banned outright due to COVID-related health rules, with the rest of the provinces enacting severe limits on church attendance size.
The “We Will Gather Easter 2021” webpage states that the churches involved hope for “three things.”
The first goal is that “many people who are needing refuge and sanctuary will flock to these churches and hear the Gospel of Jesus…
In what is believed to be a first in North America, a Canadian church that gathered for worship in defiance of provincial COVID-19 lockdown laws, which limits church gatherings to 10 people, has had their elder board of six people charged under Section 10.1 of the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA) for holding church services on Sunday, December 27.
If convicted, they could each receive a $10,000 fine.
News of the charges to the elders of Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Ontario was delivered on December 30th, when in a coordinated effort, law enforcement officers showed up at each of the homes of the six elders and delivered them the court summons.
In a press release sent out about the incident, the church expressed their dismay and righteous anger at this news:
Our government is destroying our society to prevent the spread of a virus with a fraction of a fractional death rate. This is evil. Nowhere does the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee freedom from risk or virus, but it does protect the freedom of conscience, religion, belief, and assembly. These are unlawful laws, a violation of God-given rights, a contravention of Section 176 of the Criminal Code, and an infringement of the Charter.
Unsurprisingly, the chief of police who is overseeing and enforcing the lockdown advocated for Black Lives Matter protests several months back when they were similarly prohibited. He supported these gatherings of over 10,000 people, explaining that “we will ensure you have the support needed to practice your democratic right and have your voice heard.”
For churches, not so much.
The press release concludes with these words:
Our Saviour shed His blood to purchase the church, and therefore deeming the church “unessential” is tantamount to deeming the blood of Christ unessential, which is a public act of blasphemy. One day our elected officials, bureaucrats, and police will stand before the court of God’s justice for these acts. We earnestly pray that the Holy Spirit would draw them to His Son, Jesus Christ, who offers free grace and forgiveness to all who would repent and put their faith in him.
Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and therefore we must honour and obey him above all earthly governments. We emphasize that our hope in Christ’s goodness is firmly anchored. Our Saviour is just, equitable, and loving towards his people. He has every hair on our heads numbered, and his eyes see all things. He will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death, and we will fear no evil. He has taught us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and to count our sufferings as pure joy. We embrace his will in humility by submitting to his heavy hand trusting that in the proper time he will exalt us because he cares.
One of the LA County Health Supervisors who has been fighting to keep John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church closed, and whom the church is seeking to subpoena for a deposition for her role in levying fines, taking away their parking lot access after nearly 50 years of use, and levying massive fines against the California megachurch, showed herself to be the interminable hypocrite when she engaged in activities she voted to make illegal.
The tyrannical government pawn Sheila Kuehl voted 3-2 to close all outdoor dining in her county, saying that it was a “most dangerous situation” and that “the servers are not protected from us, and they’re not protected from their other tables that they’re serving at that particular time, plus all the hours in which they’re working,”
Yet mere hours before this new shutdown law went into effect, she was out on the town, eating at an outdoor restaurant Il Forno Trattoria and indulging in the same behavior she just made illegal because of how “unsafe” and “dangerous” it was.
According to her spokesperson Barbara Osborne, when asked about her hypocrisy, she acknowledged that Kuehl
…did dine al fresco at Il Forno on the very last day it was permissible. She loves Il Forno, has been saddened to see it, like so many restaurants, suffer from a decline in revenue. She ate there, taking appropriate precautions, and sadly will not dine there again until our Public Health Orders permit.
The LA County Supervisor is one of the women that Pastor John MacArthur asked his congregants to contact back in August, asking her for some form of reason and sanity and to relent from her wicked ways and say some variation of the following:
Dear Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. We respectfully request that you cease your attempt to enforce your order against Grace Community Church. We stand together as Christians in our constitutionally protected fundamental right that Church is essential. Our government is obligated to protect our liberties and freedoms, especially our free exercise of religion, and we ask you to fulfill that obligation to us.”
As far as the court case goes, Grace Community Church’s attorneys are seeking to get her deposed because they want to ask her about “any and all actions taken by the County of Los Angeles against Grace Community Church of the Valley, including evidence regarding the basis, motivation, and reasons for such actions.”
The County lawyers, however, are supremely opposed to the notion and so far it has not been ruled on.
A Pastor in Melbourne, Australia, living under the harshest and strictest lockdown measures in the world, was stopped, interrogated, fined $1,652, and made to turn around and leave after attempting to give caregiving help to a disabled Church member.
This abuse of power took place on September 30, when a member of Pastor Stephen Hills’ Church who has a disability informed him that he needed some urgent help. Given that “caregiving” is one of the few legitimate means to be traveling, Pastor Hills grabbed his documentation and eventually found himself at a COVID-19 checkpoint, one of the dozens of blockades set up ensure no one is disobeying lockdown orders.
Australia’s lockdown has been so severe, for a long time people were not allowed to travel more than 5 km away from their homes and were forbidden from having anyone over to their houses, as well as were prohibited from going outside their homes to exercise in public parks or nature paths, or even a walk down the street.
At the checkpoint, Hills explained to the officer why he was traveling “just going down to (visit) a church member. Caregiving and practical help.” He showed the officer his Driver’s License and Pastor’s ID card, but the officer again asked why he was going down. Hills reiterated that he was going to help a disabled church member with an urgent task but the officer then began to question why Stephen was acting so nervously.
After explaining that he was unnerved by the checkpoints, the officer told him to pull off to the side, due to his suspicious behavior, a move Hills found incredulous.
I gave him the evidence. I gave him the license. I gave him all the requirements, and he just wouldn’t believe me; and it was the injustice of not being believed and knowing I was doing something to help someone out.
The officer demanded to know the name and address of the disabled church member, information Hills declined to share, citing that ministers have the duty to maintain confidentiality. The Officer said that he didn’t believe him and because he wouldn’t give up the name said, “I don’t think that you meet the criteria of caregiving under essential travel.”
The officer fined Hills $1652 and turned him around, forcing him to find other arrangements for the distressed parishoner.
The thirty-fifth album in an ongoing series documenting faithful churches gathering for Sunday service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. With some churches still not gathering in-person in these dark times, others being persecuted by the government for being open, and others ending services for the rest of the year, these are the congregations who are meeting faithfully at the command of Scripture (Heb. 10:25).
With COVID cases on the rise, Provincial leaders in Manitoba and parts of Ontario have chosen to enter into a strict lockdown for the next month, closing all non-essential business, which includes churches and houses of worship.
With 8,878 total cases, 114 deaths and a total provincial population of 1.4 million people, all of Manitoba is moving to “Level Red” Thursday, which leaves only essential businesses like grocery stores open at 25% capacity. Churches may only be open virtually, even in locations where there hasn’t been a case of COVID within 100 miles. Failure to comply with the mandatory church closures can result in personal fines of up to $1296 for individuals and $5000 for the churches.
The city of Toronto in the province of Ontario and Peel region is likewise entering the dreaded “red Zone” which allows churches to remain open, but only at 30% capacity, and only while wearing masks and social distancing the entire time. Names and phone numbers of all attendees must be kept and social gatherings after the service of more than 10 people is strictly prohibited.
Canadian Police and RCMP have historically not responded well to Churches that choose to stay open or flout the rules, such as when Pastor Henry Hildebrandt held drive-in services where all church members stayed in their cars the entire time with windows rolled up and the message was piped through their car stereos via FM transmitters. This was viewed as outrageously unsafe and dangerous and the church was harassed mercilessly by police services. Any resistance is sure to be met with swift crackdowns.
Given the general all-around attitude of Canadians towards legislative authorities, expect few pastors, if any, to fight back and refuse to close their church services in Manitoba, but rather the vast majority will comply with government orders, even if, again, there hasn’t been a COVID case within 100 miles.
As many Churches across Australia remain shutdown, forced by the government under threats of harsh fines and arrest, megachurch leader Brian Houston is leading the charge to have restrictions eased.
Houston, the prosperity-peaching pastor and serial bible-twister who leads Hillsong Church has been speaking out against Australia’s harsh and draconian shutdown laws, which have been some of the strictest in the world.
According to the Daily Mail, “Houston has been inundated with support since venting his outrage over the latest changes,” saying:
I think people are listening. Maybe the change is coming. I know the Anglican Archbishop and the Catholic Archbishop has been speaking to the government. I think that changes are coming but they need to come.
Some people wouldn’t feel ready to come back yet, wouldn’t feel safe. Other people are dying to get back there…Mental health, as we all know, and health generally, well-being is a big, big thing. Isolation doesn’t help that at all. Church, part of what we do, is community and connection.
While restrictions have had different levels of severity depending on the region, in some places they have been absolutely monstrous, particularly in Victoria, where Premier Daniel Andrews holds court.
To get an idea of how severe things have been, even as of last week in some places you cannot travel more than 3 miles away from your house except for work and shopping for essentials, the government uses drones to patrol the skies, all people must wear facemasks outside, people cannot spend more than two hours outside one’s home each day, and only a maximum of two guests are allowed to visit once a day.
It’s in this oppressive spirit that Churches are still locked down in Victoria, with Premier Daniel Andrews being taken to task by critics for saying that churches pose a special risk to COVID spread because they are dirty and people sing in them, and for this reason should remain closed. This of course despite the fact that regional pubs can host 40 people inside.
When pressed why Churches are being treated differently than drinkers, Andrews replied:
Do they sing at a Pub? Is a church cleaned to the standard that a pub may be? I know that there are many arrangements where it will be someone from the parish who out of the goodness of their heart will clean the church. It may not even be a paid thing….a heavily regulated environment, a licensed environment is different to one that is not. That is pretty plain…
With a population of over 25 Million people, Australia has recorded 27,430 cases and 905 deaths.
