Most people are uninterested in what priests from mainline denominations have to say. I can hardly blame them since so much of it is utter nonsense. We still have a priestly caste that has authority, though: doctors, scientists, experts in general and politicians, although the lustre of the latter has become tarnished of late. The reason for this is that we like to be told what to do: freedom, as Dostoyevsky noted, is a burden which we are only too eager to give away to whoever offers to relieve us of it.

As a result, we sheep listen keenly for our shepherd’s call and follow him where he leads.

Jeremiah encountered false prophets who insisted that everything would turn out fine:

Jeremiah 23:16ff
[16] A Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies: “Don’t listen to the sermons of the prophets. It’s all hot air. Lies, lies, and more lies. They make it all up. Not a word they speak comes from me.
[17] They preach their ‘Everything Will Turn Out Fine’ sermon to congregations with no taste for God, Their ‘Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen to You’ sermon to people who are set in their own ways.
[18] “Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me ,the true GOD? bothered to take in what I have to say? listened to and then lived out my Word?
[19] Look out! GOD’s hurricane will be let loose— my hurricane blast, Spinning the heads of the wicked like tops!
[20] God’s raging anger won’t let up Until I’ve made a clean sweep, completing the job I began. When the job’s done, you’ll see that it’s been well done.

We have been assured by our medical experts that taking one or a combination of the readily available COVID-19 vaccines will save us. Such is the fervour of these priestly panjandrums and their devotees that the vaccination ritual has taken on a eucharistic aura. Selfies of the first dose rite are posted on Facebook, garnering enthusiastic approval and congratulations; new converts feverishly – literally in some cases – proselytize their friends to partake of the Dose; scorn is heaped on the reluctant.

What lies underneath all this? Does it have a spiritual aspect?

It now seems plausible that the COVID-19 virus was man-made in the Chinese Wuhan laboratory as part of their gain of function research – a process partially funded by the US National Institutes of Health. Which goes to show that the existence of a conspiracy theory is not evidence of the absence of a conspiracy. So, the havoc that has been visited on mankind was, in all likelihood, self-inflicted.

Our efforts to extricate ourselves are mainly focussed on vaccines, all of which (in North America, at least) have been produced or tested using a kidney dissected from a baby girl aborted in 1972 (the HEK-293 cell line) or the iris of another baby aborted in 1985 (the PER.C6 cell line). This may or may not fill you with unease; in my case, it does.

The Catholic church is one of the few denominations that have made a statement on the morality of taking a vaccine whose development relied on an aborted baby (the Anglican Church – even ACNA- has yet to make an even flabby pronouncement on it). To summarise the Catholic position: it is morally acceptable to take such a vaccine if no alternative is available because the abortion was not performed for the express purpose of harvesting the baby’s organs for sale to a laboratory; that was incidental to the abortion and the use of the vaccine is not encouraging further abortions. There is no material cooperation with the evil act of abortion. In my view, the argument is flawed for a couple of reasons. Here is one: it has recently come to light that the university of Pittsburgh has been aborting babies by induction so that they remain intact, a requirement for optimal organ harvesting. The babies may still be alive when they are induced; indeed, they may still be alive when they are dissected. The organs, once removed, are sold to laboratories for medical experiments, just as the kidney and iris were to develop our COVID-19 vaccines. To consume the vaccine is to grant tacit assent to a demonic abomination, an abomination which would have no reason to continue if all refused to inject the fruit of its macabre experiments.

One of the enduring conceits of mankind has been that we are in command of our own destiny. “The vaccine will give us our freedom back”, we are told. “It will ‘flatten the curve’” – remember that? “You will be able to travel, take off your mask, eat in restaurants, hug your grandchildren, go to baseball games” and so forth. I vaccinate, therefore I can ….. hug, dine out, travel – insert your choice distraction.

But what if God is in control, not us?  What if this is His judgement on an evil generation? What if He is waiting for us to repent?

Countries that have instigated draconian lockdowns and mask mandates have not done significantly better than Sweden that didn’t.

Israel was the first country to start vaccinating people. The majority of the population has received two Pfizer injections. Yet this was the headline in yesterday’s Times of Israel:

Health officials predict thousands of seriously ill COVID patients within month

It goes on to say:

Israeli hospitals have to prepare for an influx of nearly 5,000 coronavirus patients within weeks, half of whom will need acute care to deal with severe bouts of COVID-19, health officials have warned Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, according to reports Wednesday.

An old friend of mine used to like telling me: “If you sup with the Devil make sure you use a long spoon”.

I’ll leave you with some questions: are we in control of this pandemic or is God? Is our priestly caste spouting piffle when they assure us that everything will be fine if we just do as they say or are we at a Jeremiah moment? If you take the vaccine, is your spoon long enough?

For those who are still unconvinced that all but the most stubborn have become glassy-eyed disciples in a new and seemingly irresistible cult, I give you this – sorry, I don’t know what to call it – thing, allegedly written by The Right Reverend Richard Bott, Moderator of the United Church of Canada.

Creator,
as I prepare to go into the world,
help me to see the sacrament
in the wearing of this cloth –
let it be “an outward sign
of an inward grace” –
a tangible and visible way
of living love for my neighbours,
as I love myself.

Christ,
since my lips will be covered,
uncover my heart,
that people would see my smile
in the crinkles around my eyes.
Since my voice may be muffled,
help me to speak clearly,
not only with my words,
but with my actions.

Holy Spirit,
as the elastic touches my ears,
remind me to listen carefully –
and full of care –
to all those I meet.
May this simple piece of cloth
be shield and banner,
and each breath that it holds,
be filled with your love.

In your Name
and in that love,
I pray.

May it be so.
May it be so.