Did they close their doors to in-person services? Did they visit with the infirmed and the patients on their death beds? Did they host weddings? Did they host funerals? Did they mandate masks to attend in-person when they reopened? Did they encourage from the pulpit their congregation do their biblical duty to help their fellow man and t…
Did they close their doors to in-person services? Did they visit with the infirmed and the patients on their death beds? Did they host weddings? Did they host funerals? Did they mandate masks to attend in-person when they reopened? Did they encourage from the pulpit their congregation do their biblical duty to help their fellow man and take the jab?
If they failed to provide those bare basics and protect their congregations stand with God against the abuses of the state - asserting their separation of church and state constitutional recognition - then they turned their back on God.
Sorry for a late answer and do hope I can be brief to answer going backwards with your questions. No one from the pulpit encouraged the vaccines. Masks were not mandated when we opened the Wednesday after Mother’s Day. They had hand sanitizer out for those who wanted. I had a friend who got married in another state but didn’t go because I knew masks don’t work. Microbiology would have said that for viruses. I would have loved to been at her wedding as she had been at mine. Both of us retired nurses with different ideas. That happened and no one can deny. But we are best of friends.
Our pastor did everything he could to see anyone who was sick. He was very faithful. We could have 10 in church for services. For years we have had services by phone line so having church was a little different until the release came. We had a parking lot Easter service.
I saved the worst answer to last because of the very personal connection and you may not see my tears or feel my pain. In August 2020, my photographer uncle had a bad carotid artery stroke and died from a bleed on my wedding anniversary. I was not allowed in to see him but the nurse let me talk to him by phone. Of course, he could not respond. If I remember correctly, our pastor was able to get his son in. If not he did all he could to make it happen. My cousin was very smart and told the “hospital powers that be” he would own the hospital if Covid was on the death certificate. Yes, we had a funeral at the funeral home. My funeral home friend told me “we will not enforce mask wearing.” I have pictures to prove the majority did not mask up. But if someone was uncomfortable and felt they had to wear a mask, they did. I spoke at his funeral. Distance wasn’t a problem either.
Now, the remarkable thing to me and many others, a big box hardware store parking lot could be full on Saturday with people everywhere with their masks of course and only 10 in church on Sunday? That was wrong. We knew it.
We did not turn our back on God. We did not stop our storehouse giving. We did not stop praying or encouraging one another.
Some churches in our community suffered by the way they did. I will not be their judge. We were treading in untested waters!
Your story made me tear up. I know you and many have tragic stories like that, breaks my heart, what was done. I have my own losses I feel, it's personal.
With respect to your church and many churches like it, with many congregants like you, all doing the best they could in a difficult situation, it's hard to lay blame on them, such nice, kind, caring people. But the clergy, the elders, the national and international organized faith institutions could've said "NO" to the orders at the start. And followed in the tradition of churches in all prior outbreaks of disease, and stayed open, offered sanctuary, for the sick and dying, no matter what the government, media and health departments said.
They failed. They failed the biggest test of being servants to God. Almighty. And chose to obey man's laws instead of God's laws. Faith leaders failed! With the exception of Artur Pawlowski in Canada, and the few anonymous others who blatantly defied man's law to serve God first. "Oh, we might get fined" "Oh we might get sick "Oh we might be shut down" "Oh the national hierarchy will strip my church of affiliation" "Oh my congregants will be angry with me" whatever their excuse it's just that, an excuse. God needs servants of the strongest faith, the courageous, the Daniel's, who will stand up to wicked and corrupt men. Instead all of the institutions of faith around the world took bended knee to man's law, their faith in God subservient to their faith government.
It was shocking to watch. Had faith leaders united, Interfaith councils and all, and civilly disobeyed the unconstitutional orders to close, it all would've stopped. Even pandemic response studies and lessons from the Spanish Flu said "Don't close houses of worship!" Don't do it! They are necessary for the souls of people in frightening time, they need to serve communities especially in times of crisis. Yet they all obeyed. And closed. You're telling me it wasn't even until Memorial Day, two months, that's obscene! No excuse. They turned their back on their flocks. Cowardly. Weak men. Weak of faith in God, Almighty. They failed.
Sure, they did what they could, after prostrating church to state, after they made themselves supplicants and the biggest harm was injury was inflicted. Sure, they're back to serving their congregations as they served them before 2020. But they failed. The cowardice and weakness in faith cannot be unseen. Their non-performance of ministering when entire communities needed them most can't be forgotten. But, as you said, only God can judge them for it.
As for me, they revealed themselves, exposed their acceptance of the practice of religion being inferior to government. Inferior to a hardware store, a liquor store, a weed store, a strip club. Their obedience to such wicked men proved them and their religious institutions unworthy of being God's servants. They did it before. They will do it again. They've already made that negotiation.
I'll never go to an organized religion house of worship again. I'll worship with other true believers, risk the police knocking down our doors - as Artur Pawlowski did - to gather to worship God in defiance of immoral man's authority. God is the Almighty. Not wicked men. Not weak servants of God who submit to wicked men. They sold us out in 2020. They reap the consequences of demonstrated faithlessness.
Did they close their doors to in-person services? Did they visit with the infirmed and the patients on their death beds? Did they host weddings? Did they host funerals? Did they mandate masks to attend in-person when they reopened? Did they encourage from the pulpit their congregation do their biblical duty to help their fellow man and take the jab?
If they failed to provide those bare basics and protect their congregations stand with God against the abuses of the state - asserting their separation of church and state constitutional recognition - then they turned their back on God.
Hard to argue against that.
Sorry for a late answer and do hope I can be brief to answer going backwards with your questions. No one from the pulpit encouraged the vaccines. Masks were not mandated when we opened the Wednesday after Mother’s Day. They had hand sanitizer out for those who wanted. I had a friend who got married in another state but didn’t go because I knew masks don’t work. Microbiology would have said that for viruses. I would have loved to been at her wedding as she had been at mine. Both of us retired nurses with different ideas. That happened and no one can deny. But we are best of friends.
Our pastor did everything he could to see anyone who was sick. He was very faithful. We could have 10 in church for services. For years we have had services by phone line so having church was a little different until the release came. We had a parking lot Easter service.
I saved the worst answer to last because of the very personal connection and you may not see my tears or feel my pain. In August 2020, my photographer uncle had a bad carotid artery stroke and died from a bleed on my wedding anniversary. I was not allowed in to see him but the nurse let me talk to him by phone. Of course, he could not respond. If I remember correctly, our pastor was able to get his son in. If not he did all he could to make it happen. My cousin was very smart and told the “hospital powers that be” he would own the hospital if Covid was on the death certificate. Yes, we had a funeral at the funeral home. My funeral home friend told me “we will not enforce mask wearing.” I have pictures to prove the majority did not mask up. But if someone was uncomfortable and felt they had to wear a mask, they did. I spoke at his funeral. Distance wasn’t a problem either.
Now, the remarkable thing to me and many others, a big box hardware store parking lot could be full on Saturday with people everywhere with their masks of course and only 10 in church on Sunday? That was wrong. We knew it.
We did not turn our back on God. We did not stop our storehouse giving. We did not stop praying or encouraging one another.
Some churches in our community suffered by the way they did. I will not be their judge. We were treading in untested waters!
Best of all, God was with us!
Your story made me tear up. I know you and many have tragic stories like that, breaks my heart, what was done. I have my own losses I feel, it's personal.
With respect to your church and many churches like it, with many congregants like you, all doing the best they could in a difficult situation, it's hard to lay blame on them, such nice, kind, caring people. But the clergy, the elders, the national and international organized faith institutions could've said "NO" to the orders at the start. And followed in the tradition of churches in all prior outbreaks of disease, and stayed open, offered sanctuary, for the sick and dying, no matter what the government, media and health departments said.
They failed. They failed the biggest test of being servants to God. Almighty. And chose to obey man's laws instead of God's laws. Faith leaders failed! With the exception of Artur Pawlowski in Canada, and the few anonymous others who blatantly defied man's law to serve God first. "Oh, we might get fined" "Oh we might get sick "Oh we might be shut down" "Oh the national hierarchy will strip my church of affiliation" "Oh my congregants will be angry with me" whatever their excuse it's just that, an excuse. God needs servants of the strongest faith, the courageous, the Daniel's, who will stand up to wicked and corrupt men. Instead all of the institutions of faith around the world took bended knee to man's law, their faith in God subservient to their faith government.
It was shocking to watch. Had faith leaders united, Interfaith councils and all, and civilly disobeyed the unconstitutional orders to close, it all would've stopped. Even pandemic response studies and lessons from the Spanish Flu said "Don't close houses of worship!" Don't do it! They are necessary for the souls of people in frightening time, they need to serve communities especially in times of crisis. Yet they all obeyed. And closed. You're telling me it wasn't even until Memorial Day, two months, that's obscene! No excuse. They turned their back on their flocks. Cowardly. Weak men. Weak of faith in God, Almighty. They failed.
Sure, they did what they could, after prostrating church to state, after they made themselves supplicants and the biggest harm was injury was inflicted. Sure, they're back to serving their congregations as they served them before 2020. But they failed. The cowardice and weakness in faith cannot be unseen. Their non-performance of ministering when entire communities needed them most can't be forgotten. But, as you said, only God can judge them for it.
As for me, they revealed themselves, exposed their acceptance of the practice of religion being inferior to government. Inferior to a hardware store, a liquor store, a weed store, a strip club. Their obedience to such wicked men proved them and their religious institutions unworthy of being God's servants. They did it before. They will do it again. They've already made that negotiation.
I'll never go to an organized religion house of worship again. I'll worship with other true believers, risk the police knocking down our doors - as Artur Pawlowski did - to gather to worship God in defiance of immoral man's authority. God is the Almighty. Not wicked men. Not weak servants of God who submit to wicked men. They sold us out in 2020. They reap the consequences of demonstrated faithlessness.