XXXXX –
Hey! It was good to see you, albeit briefly, at the Farmer’s Market this weekend. I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to catch up!
This is a note that has been on my heart for a long time. Actually, it’s been right at a month. I pray you’ll hear me out and not take offense when I say that we believe insisting on masks and encouraging social distancing due to COVID-19 is spreading false information and even propaganda.
- There is simply no science to support healthy person mask-wearing for the prevention of airborne infectious disease. Here’s a link to an article about Mask Facts
- There is simply no science to support the need for the prevention of this particular disease. (Many sources to follow.)
We know that children are not at risk of dying of COVID-19, nor do they contribute to the spreading of SARS-Cov2. We know that tweens, teens and young adults are at an increased risk of suicide due to social isolation, insecurity, and covid-related anxiety. We know that testing is guaranteed to find positives even in people (and fruit!) with ZERO virus (source more), meaning that 2020 deaths are up to 94% mis-attributed to Coronavirus, and that widespread testing is not only a terrible policy on the practical level, it is no longer recommended by CDC (source). I recently learned that the CDC has been tracking what it calls “Covid-Like Illness” (CLI) throughout 2020 and going back to November of 2019, and found that we are at the SAME levels today as we were in November 2019. Meaning either COVID-19 was around then and no one knew/cared, or it’s gone now (Page 7 for the CLI information).
We know that the government is fast-tracking a vaccine that is neither safe nor effective, and that it is likely to contain a bioflouresence material (eerily called Luciferace; I am not joking) which will allow people to be “tattooed” with a “mark” to prove they have received the vaccine. (source)
We believe this is a hoax, perpetuated as a way to control the US citizens. Maybe just to mess with the election, or maybe to force us to take the vaccine. Either way, our family is simply unwilling to engage with organizations or people that are unwilling to look behind the curtain. (Ephesians 5:11)
Our family was excited to join the XXXXX family for in-person services in July. We had been attending church from home all summer, at XXXXX and at XXXXX (my mom’s home church), but were really craving that community engagement that can only happen when we gather together.
We recognize that things are weird post-covid, and that you and the church, especially meeting in XXXXX Middle School, may be held to a higher level of scrutiny than some churches in our community. We know the temperature around the US is rising, which might make wide open gatherings risky. We’re seeing riots raging all around the country, which are not only condoned, but are in fact celebrated by the media and political elites. Casinos and shopping malls are open, but many churches are forced to remain closed, or have willingly refused to re-open. Courageous pastors like John MacArthur, Ken Graves, and Rob McCoy are being fined and threatened with lawsuits and jail time – for exercising their right (and duty) to open their doors to their congregations.
At first we were willing to say, Pastor XXXXX is doing what is best for the congregation, he is protecting the least vulnerable. Isn’t that what Jesus would want us to do? If some people are nervous about coming to church because some people aren’t wearing masks, it makes sense for him to send a note begging people to wear their masks and practice social distancing. So we stopped attending services because we didn’t want to be a stumbling block for others.
But the masks are a lie. The risk of this disease is overblown. The tyranny that Americans have willingly endured (even welcomed) is shocking. And by engaging in this charade, you are spreading the lie.
I’ve heard the Romans 13 argument plenty of times this year, summarized as “God put our rulers in place and we are called to obey.” However, to borrow from John MacArthur, “while civil government is invested with divine authority to rule the state, neither [Romans 13 nor 1 Peter 2] grants civic rulers jurisdiction over the church. …God has not granted civic rulers authority over the doctrine, practice, or polity of the church.” (full letter) We the People are the civic rulers in the United States of America. The Constitution is in place under our consent.
As a newbie in the congregation, I do not know the administration hierarchy of XXXXX Church. I know not owning your building puts you at a significant disadvantage. But those things should not be enough to stop you from serving the church, the body of Christ, with a vision for the Kingdom first and foremost in your mind.
Regardless of where you stand on the COVID-19 “issue,” your alarm bells should have been screaming when your state mandated that churches be closed. Ever. But especially over Easter. Then into May, and June..? Throughout the summer you have seen the media blow this out of proportion, ginning up fear and encouraging citizens to give up their liberties.
YOU as the pastor could have insisted on in-person gatherings from the beginning. Once gathering was allowed again, you could have said “wear masks if you want, don’t wear ’em if you don’t want to.”
YOU as the pastor can find a new location if XXXXX Middle School requires heightened and erroneous restrictions on your church. You could meet outside at a park, or at someone’s farm where there is plenty of room for folks to distance if they want to, not to mention all the fresh air for virus-killing.
And if anyone (leadership, elders, staff, long-time members) doesn’t want to come, they don’t have to.
With an eye to our eternal heavenly Kingdom, and the real, literal second-coming of Christ on earth, Christians are told to expect a falling away. We are called to jump into the refiner’s fire, to be willing to be uncomfortable, unpopular, even martyred! We are not called to go along to get along. We are not called to put up with tyranny. We are called to be discerning and when we find false teaching we are called to shout the Truth.
Getting kicked out of XXXXX Middle School or losing an elder or two is nothing compared to the risk of spreading falsehoods – especially within a community of people who are looking to you for guidance.
We want to attend a church with a pastor that is willing to take a stand. Are you that pastor?
The second most important thing I learned: If you’re mashing up some cabbage, and you don’t have quite enough water squeezing out to cover the cabbage {even after you’ve added a weight}, you can add more salted water and still have positive results. It seems pretty obvious to me now, but my very first attempt at sauerkraut, way back in 2012, was such a dry, dismal disaster I threw it out and swore I was done with homemade sauerkraut. That’s three summers of no fresh kraut. But my kids decided they love sauerkraut, so I had to give it another try. For my first batch of the season I had such an old head of cabbage, I didn’t think any amount of mashing would yield enough liquid. So after mashing and squeezing as much as I could, I just topped it off with salty water everything turned out just fine.
