A letter to every Christian priest pastor preacher in Canada

[Thinktank]

that's James Coates - a pastor from Edmonton



That's Deena Hinshaw. She looks about as brilliant as Bonnie Henry. She's Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health - the person responsible for putting James Coates in jail - for opening his church. For doing nothing wrong.

To every priest, pastor and preacher in Canada,
what are you going to do about this inustice?
Sing songs to God?
Collect donations from people? Read bible stories to people?
Tell people about how Jesus was killed on a cross for doing nothing, over and over and over until donations pour in?

What are you going to do to get this guy out of jail, who should never be in jail in the first place?
It's a crime.

What do you think Christians should do?


discuss

[Bsuds]

What do you think Christians should do?

They could stop breaking the Law and stay at home!

My understanding is you don't have to go to a Church to pray.

[GordonH]

So for the hell of it, took a look at a few churches online in central Okanagan.

Found something interesting, a number of them live stream. So stay at home turn on the computer (if need be link it to the tv)... no need to go to church to hear your... priest, pastor etc... etc

Added: if you need a face to face with someone, just use Zoom... FaceTime etc.. etc

[mexi cali]

Please find another hobby.

[OKkayak]

I'm confused.
Is this a "bash the Health Officer" thread?
Or a "bash the Christian" thread?

[Thinktank]

stay at home...

People who are not staying home:
Military contractors - stock prices of all military industrial complex or "rich slobs who steal $billions tax dollars from the poor" corporations are going up faster than Covid rates at remote First Nations communities.
Road builders
Walmart
Construction companies
Auto manufacturers
Alcohol manufacturers
Fast Food producers

People who are staying at home.... in jail:
Pastor James Coates of Edmonton

People who are remaining silent during a crisis:
- all the pastors from 25,000 churches in Canada, and all those Kingdom Halls too -

People who make me sick:


^ Her. The Liar. Because the guy should not be in jail.



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[Sparki55]

My understanding is you don't have to go to a Church to pray.

And I don't need to go into the office to complete my job, yet I'm required to.

The problem with the restrictions is society has decided what is essential and what isn't. The problem isn't the restrictions but that they were not rolled out with equality. A group of people decided what is and isn't acceptable activities right now, based only on suspected transmission rates and whether or not the deciding group thought people "need" the activity to live.

Gyms are still operating. So it's completely ok to go to a place where equipment is shared, masks don't need to be worn while "exerting in your 6 ft bubble" and people come and go all day. Yet a church isn't allowed to hold service with everyone wearing masks and ft apart.

The problem is the inequality in restrictions. Should all businesses need to remain closes except for things that are actually essential then there wouldn't be as much pushback?

Is that not enough to make anyone question the restrictions? Nah, churches are stupid and non-essential, keep em closed and go get a nice COVID-Free workout indoors with 50 other sweaty people instead!

[Merry]

I agree that the rules are arbitrary and unfair. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need rules to help slow the spread of a contagious disease, because we most definitely do.

The decision to allow non essential businesses to operate was based on economics, not science. And anyone concerned about catching the virus would be wise to avoid those places. But just because the authorities decided to allow the all mighty dollar to override health concerns in some instances, doesn’t mean we should ignore health concerns in ALL instances.

The Lord taught us to “love thy neighbour as thyself” and surely that includes doing what we can to protect the vulnerable from a very nasty disease, that could leave them with lifelong complications, or even kill them. As Christians we have a responsibility to put the health care of others, above our own selfish need to congregate when we worship.

God is everywhere, not just in churches. And God will hear our prayers, no matter where we are when we pray.

Christians need to remember that.

[Thinktank]

The Lord taught us to “love thy neighbour as thyself” and surely that includes doing what we can to protect the vulnerable from a very nasty disease, that could leave them with lifelong complications, or even kill them.

You mean diabetes?



So we give a $2.00 vaccine to the poor.

It's a well known fact that poor people have more sickness and disease than rich people, and they live up to fifteen years less.

[Sparki55]

I agree that the rules are arbitrary and unfair. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need rules to help slow the spread of a contagious disease, because we most definitely do.

Yes, we need rules, that apply evenly to all activities. It is a fact that a gym where people are exerting themselves is at greater risk for transmission over a church gathering. We don't ban gay sex because of higher transmission rates of HIV... We don't ban motorcycles because of the higher risk of death...

The decision to allow non essential businesses to operate was based on economics, not science. And anyone concerned about catching the virus would be wise to avoid those places. But just because the authorities decided to allow the all mighty dollar to override health concerns in some instances, doesn’t mean we should ignore health concerns in ALL instances.

Leaving the country isn't banned either?! Finally implemented a quarantine hotel return policy... So those concerned about catching the virus should avoid the places we allowed to stay open but no option for churches lol.

The Lord taught us to “love thy neighbour as thyself” and surely that includes doing what we can to protect the vulnerable from a very nasty disease, that could leave them with lifelong complications, or even kill them. As Christians we have a responsibility to put the health care of others, above our own selfish need to congregate when we worship.

Yes, it's selfish for Christians to gather but not selfish for gym-goers to workout? That is the message.

God is everywhere, not just in churches. And God will hear our prayers, no matter where we are when we pray.

Christians need to remember that.

You're right, guess we don't even need the return of churches? Just pray at home and do the odd zoom?

[mbfarm131]

The interesting thing about the events of the past year is that they've proven to be a great reveal in many respects. It's no different for churches who, by and large, have shown that their main objective is to protect their tax shelter status via following the variable laws of man and not the immutable law of god. I don't care about beliefs, I care about the courage of convictions. Most churches and their leaders have given a clear sign that they won't hesitate to bend to the will of man at even the slightest sign of hardship. Great, they have now shown what they really are, lukewarm passivity factories that churn out compliant geldings. What people need in times like this is community, strong leadership and cooperation. For some reason, an alarming amount of smoothbrain boomers seem to think those qualities can be replicated via laptops and smartphones. They can't. Advantageously, this is also part of the great reveal; a stark divergence between societal subsets, one that thinks all they need to do is lay back and get fed and cleaned and entertained like a baby, and one who has come to the conclusion that they had better detach from the attitude of the latter and start relying on their own means and ability and finding a like minded community of people. Sure, it's easier to just completely check-out and expect the system to do everything for you, but as the months and years roll on, we're going to realize just how unstable the system is and how dangerous absolute reliance can be.

To get back to the original point, I don't think Christian churches are going to do anything for this man, and that's ok. What things like this do is inspire the silent bystanders. Seeing some cat lady shrieking about human rights in a trendy coffee shop because she doesn't want to wear a mask is not inspiring. However seeing someone stand against the mob without fear of losing their comforts, such as this pastor who got arrested or the Manitoba man who was given a huge fine for Caroling over the holidays, these actions do inspire and they do more for awakening the spark of resistance among would be fence-sitters than a million rallies or mask disputes ever would. By resistance, I don't mean going and letting City Hall know how you feel, or loudly and publicly calling BS, or trying to "wake the masses", by resistance I mean building community, building family, growing your own food, gaining skills that can benefit community, and letting the complicity theorists go their own way.

This reveal is also an opportunity, wringing your hands and crying foul won't help you one bit, finding local solutions will. Be thankful we're in this time of clarity.

[Thinktank]

He's talking about God and government.


Does the government have the right to put someone in jail, for believing in God.



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[youjustcomplain]

He's talking about God and government.


Does the government have the right to put someone in jail, for believing in God.



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What a worthless strawman argument. You don't win points by making such idiotic statements.
Though there may be countries where this actually happens, you're not in one of them.

From my perspective, I've heard about quite a number of churches defying the public health order. Most of them have been receiving numerous warnings before receiving a fine. One, here in Kelowna, went public to say that they will continue to stay open whether they receive fines or not.

That's a pretty big problem. And it's not an attack on faith for the province to take action. These organizations can't just defy some laws. It's not how our society stays functioning. I believe they're doing what they think is best for everyone, but they're misguided. They're not helping people if they spread covid and are the indirect cause of peoples deaths.

Whether we agree or disagree with the public health order, we must follow it. It's law. Because it's law, police must take action when the law is broken. And for those rare cases where people continue to defy the law, the province has to follow through. If the province did not follow through I would say that the province is giving special treatment to faith groups.

[Hmmm]

Interesting, the reason there is a charter of rights in Canada to begin with was 100% due to religious persecution. The government wanted to make illegal some religious activity and the group refused as they felt it was a God given directive to keep going about their activity. So after numerous court cases and victory’s in fact that group proposed the charter of rights. That’s a fact and I it’s in the history books as such. I’m not saying this church today should do things that are actually spreading a pandemic is good or bad, but simply stating that sometimes laws go against clear Biblical directions. Loving your neighbours though by not spreading a deadly virus is one of those laws too, so loving people stay the heck home.

[Thinktank]

Loving your neighbours though by not spreading a deadly virus is one of those laws too, so loving people stay the heck home.

If I was sick I definitely would stay home, not because I love my neighbours, in fact no Christian really cares much about other people - we care about ourselves, our families and our bank accounts.

I think Pastor James Coates opened his church, but in a completely sensible, clean, stay away from each other type of way.
No one died at his church from the virus, but plenty of people died from Theresa Tam's vaccines already.

Just talking to someone inside a church when you're not sick isn't "poisoning them." In fact, a lot of churches including your own are promoting vaccines - which is poisoning people. So why close the church?

USA and Canada are still sending our military all over the world.
We never closed our armies, so why close our churches?


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