"christian" Politics of Fear

 Lately there has been in the news a recurrence of stories relating to things that have happened in or around a largish city that I live near and frequently visit, that city being Steinbach, Manitoba. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, Steinbach is the largest urban center founded by Mennonites in Manitoba. There have been many people that have moved into the area over the last 10 - 15 years who are not of a Mennonite heritage, but I believe that the majority of the population are still of a Mennonite background.

Part of the Mennonite heritage is our adherence to our religious convictions. The Mennonite peoples have been known to pick up roots and leave an area, and even a country, due to religious persecution. Mennonites are also a pacifist people group and our forefathers secured for us exemption from military service before having immigrated to Canada, based on these religious convictions. Mennonites have enjoyed many years of peace, productivity and freedom in this country. God has blessed us with strong families and successful farms and businesses which is partly why the Steinbach region has historically been at least among the most generous regions in Canada in regards to helping others and charitable giving. We have lived at peace with our neighbours and have accepted others into our city and surrounding towns, inviting them into our homes and churches.

I have become dismayed though as the news media has chosen to attack our region for events at which people have been willing to stand up for our God-given rights and freedoms. That's right, God-given. We believe that God has made us free people and has allowed us safe harbour in a country that has traditionally valued freedom as much as we have, a country whose founders thought it important to build this country on Christian values and whose leaders thought it important to establish into law the rights and freedoms that all Canadians enjoy. These freedoms are laid out in our Constitution and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms; they are legally protected for all Canadians.

But now, due to fear over a virus, our leaders, both provincially and federally have found it expedient to attempt to suspend our God-given, legally protected rights in order to force every individual to take steps to "protect others" from this virus. 

Now to be clear, they do have the authority to do this for a short time if they can meet certain criteria that prove the necessity of such actions - a standard which they have failed to meet as of yet, but at this point the proof would come after the offense has already been perpetrated, thus still making these actions illegal. But I digress.

Please note that I did not state that these actions are due to the virus, because that is not the case. The Covid-19 virus is nothing more than a corona virus, the same type of virus that we have dealt with every single year as part of what we refer to as the flu season. This virus may be arguably somewhat more deadly to those who are typically susceptible to illness, but for those who are healthy, it poses no higher risk than any other "flu bug".

No, I stated that our leaders have taken these steps due to fear over this virus. Ever since March of 2020, around the time when the corona virus arrives to wreak havoc every single year, our government and media have seen fit to inundate us with non-contextualized numbers warning us about this virus. We have been repeatedly told how deadly it is to all ages (dis-proven), we have been told to get tested even if we are not feeling ill and we have been told to isolate ourselves from our co-workers and loved ones. All of this and more have been done out of fear and not based on fact. There are those that realize this and have chosen to act accordingly. Hence the purpose for this article.

The first story that brought our community into the news spotlight was a rally for freedom that was held in Steinbach, organized by a group that encouraged people to remove our government mandated masks and to instead actually live life again. The media and haters labelled this protest an "anti-mask" rally - a media created misnomer to feed the hysteria that the attendees are rebellious "science deniers". The media coverage of this event was untruthful and one-sided in the narrative that it delivered to the rest of the province, the country, and I believe even the world to a certain extent. The hate that has been targeted at this peaceful community has been palpable. If you watched the social media reactions to this rally by those who learned what happened only through the media I imagine you would have thought that there had been some type of horrendous massacre at the hands of some evil cult, and anyone that has chosen to attempt to set the record straight has been vehemently attacked.

This was not some devious scheme involving a few misguided cultists who sought to overthrow a legally elected government, though you may not have known that by the police presence. This was a peaceful gathering of reportedly up to 500 people who felt compelled to gather together with like-minded people to speak up against government over-reach into our personal lives. Yes, the unconstitutional mask mandate was a significant part of this gathering, but the over-reach extends much further than that, and these people wanted to draw the attention of their elected officials to their disgust at these government actions. There were reports of deranged people shouting down a police officer who drew the short straw of having the responsibility of issuing a fine to one of the speakers at this rally - there was one person shouting, and attendees of the rally were unable to identify who that individual was amongst them - likely an outsider or possibly someone who felt obligated to try to smear the names and reputations of these good people and found no other way to accomplish their goal. There was also a report that someone tried to "run-down" an officer at the rally with their car, when there was simply a car backing up, the driver of which having not seen the officer and stopping as soon as they became aware of the officer's position behind their vehicle. 

 There was no violence; there was no property damage; there was no hatred from the protesters. The problem is that it is barely a news worthy event if nothing exciting happened, so stories had to be contrived. And those false stories have fermented a hatred towards "anti-science" Christians and Steinbach residents as a whole, including hate from some who actually live in and around Steinbach!

Then we had the second story that inflamed hatred towards this area; can you believe that those Christians felt it was important to obey the words of their treasured Scriptures to meet together, regardless of the unconstitutional edicts of a fearful Premier! How DARE they!! Well, their actions were met with due response by RCMP officers who attended the scene, who witnessed the devout Christians sitting together inside, singing and reading and listening as God's Word was expounded to them by their chosen pastor. When the officers confronted the pastor, he simply stated that he and his congregation had decided to exercise their Constitutionally protected rights to gather and practice their religion. The officers left the scene after some consultation with their superiors; after all, they could not be seen to be violating the rights of Christians to worship, that might look like what it would be, the government using a police force to shut down a church service.

So they instead returned in the cover of darkness with multiple police officers and multiple "health officials", to the home of the pastor of the flock where he was without backup and support, to conduct their devious business in a way that would not draw attention from the pubic. Such brave protectors of our freedom!

Cowards!!

And yet again the media had to make a circus out of a side show, reporting on how these spiteful Christians had no regard for the health of others and met together to offer their children as sacrifices and sing and praise their God. You might think the struck out section was what was actually witnessed by the response of others to this news. Others including their Christian brothers and sisters who, if they cannot support these brave believers, should have at least remained silent, as they have proven is their spiritual gifting throughout this time of government forced separation. 

But the cherry on top of this for me was the news that has come to my attention that the individual that reported this dastardly activity was a self-proclaiming christian brother, who I am ashamed to admit that I am familiar with, but who will non-the-less remain nameless on these pages. What would possess a fellow believer to snitch on his Christian brethren, even though they are from a different congregation, except for his own shame at being unwilling to risk the same? I have no other explanation for his actions, but thankfully he will answer to God for his actions and his judgement is not for me to deliver nor ponder on.

So the questions remain in my mind; why have these two incidents been reported on in such a biased way, why has the media felt the need to continually stoke the flames with updates, and why are so many people so angry at the actions of these brave freedom fighters? As our world and our communities continue to decay morally and spiritually, as I observe the trajectory of this world and it's "leaders", and as our friends and neighbours continue to allow the government and media fed hysterical fear to corrupt their thoughts and hearts, I can only come up with one answer:

God.