The Covid era dispute over whether to obey Government restrictions may be set for a replay if some Christian opponents have their way.
In some parts of the Australian Christian church there was a real battle over how we should respond to the restrictions Governments imposed, especially about church meetings.
Presbyterian Minister Mark Powell, a strong political conservative, seems to want to continue the battle. Pointing to a recent decision by the Queensland Supreme Court that a vaccine mandate for ambulance workers may not have been properly issued by the former director of the Department of Health, Powell questioned the legality of actions by churches in a post on the “Daily Declaration” site.
“Unfortunately, there were congregations throughout Australia which enforced similar illegal policies as Queensland Health and Police did,” Powell wrote. “People at a number of churches could either not attend or serve in ministry unless they were vaccinated. And this included office bearers as well as volunteers.”
Powell remains critical of those churches who stuck with the various government rules, as shutdowns turned into limited numbers, that depended for a period on vaccination status. This included some stages in some states where if non vaccinated people were involved meetings needed to be smaller.
He singles out a wellreagrded leader in Sydney Anglicanism. “Senior figures such as Philip Jensen even argued that those who had a conscientious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine were operating out of a ‘fierce’, and even ‘crass’, individualism. That they are only concerned with their own personal freedoms and not the greater good.
“But what they failed to recognise or consider is that it is also an expression of ‘love’ to accept those who had come to a different conclusion.” The different conclusion being a decision to refuse to be vaccinated.
But a survey run by the McCrindle organisation showed that a majority of Christians supported “Vaccine passports” for Church services. This writer reported in Eternity, “Whether Australians are religious made little difference to their attitude to religious exemptions. 63 percent of Australians in general support vaccine passports for public venues with no exemptions for religious services. 64 percent of Australians identifying as Christians want the same. 56 percent of regular churchgoers – at least monthly – also want the same.”
Another conservative commentator, Christian academic Stephen Chavura, takes a slightly different tack, commenting in a Facebook post “Mark Powell is right to call the churches, leaders, and their cultured spokespeople to self scrutiny. I firmly believe that Christians need to forgive if they were wronged during the Covid years, and we must avoid perpetually living in the past and not moving on. At the same time I strongly urge people to honestly reflect on their words and actions during the Covid period. Very importantly we must ask ourselves this: If it were to happen again, what would I do differently. In reflecting on this, ask: Was I caught up to some degree in a media and politics-driven moment of fear?”
He certainly felt under attack for taking a conservative view during the Covid period where he wrote towards the end of the Covid Era. “I can honestly say without a shadow of doubt that the people who have been worst and most vindictive to me have been fellow, intellectually-inclined Christians who have taken issue with me ideologically or on the issue of Covid, especially over the past twelve months or so.”
The Covid tussle was fierce in the more politically conservative part of Australian evangelicalism. Speaking up for the rights of non-vaxxers to attend church was a cause pushed heavily by a cluster of conservative platforms, including the “Ezekiel Declaration” set up by a trio of Baptist pastors from Queensland. The Australian Christian Lobby attempted not to take sides.
But Chavura 2024 is right. It is time to move on. But the question he raises about what if it happened again is with thinking about.
“History doesn’t repeat but it of ten rhymes”rhymes” the aphorism attributed to Mark Twain may apply here. (It’s better than Karl Marx’s “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce.” because in the face of a global pandemic we want neither tragedy or farce.)
The fact of a global pandemic may sadly repeat itself, but the response will be a rhyme not a repeat. There could be lockdowns, vaccines in some new mix.
But it is fair to observe that the seeming accusation that those who decided to follow the government rules, however reluctantly, were not (necessarily) driven by media-induced fear. rather the attempt was made to provide the safest environment for church goers. If that had to be meeting at home online, or later in restricted fixed groups so be it was the attitude of many Christian leaders.
This was out of a desire to run with the best science available – a moving target in the case of the global pandemic. Some strategies were proven wrong – the classic being the early emphasis on wiping surfaces, it later emerging that covid was less likely to be transmitted that way as it was airborne.
It is fair to observe that none of us were unaffected by community attitudes. However it is likely that this applied to the supporters of the anti-vax movement as well. Conservative media was whipping up a campaign.
“Did I fail to publicly scrutinise and question the lockdowns, vaxx passports, and mandates?” are questions, Chavura asks. These were questioned by the church leaders who negotiated with State Health departments, over timing of lockdowns and sizes of meetings. Compromises were negotiated. But, yes, reflecting on that necessarily imperfect process is worthwhile.
But the supporters of the rights for anti vaxxers did not want a compromise. They too should reflect on their actions. “Did I fail to properly consider the science, the effect on the immune compromised and other vulnerable people, and a Romans 13 approach to government,” they might ask.
These critics of how most churches behaved in complying with lockdowns are entitled to express their opinions. they should not be censored – and The Other Cheek is happy to link to them. But a replay of the Covid wars is nowhere near a top priority for any church.
Image credit: World Health Organisation