Good citizenship should not turn into blind support for the state:
In my discussions about the trade-off between virus containment and lockdown measures, I keep getting folks who seem to think that the state can do no wrong. They have this rather naïve belief that whatever the state is doing (including the full lockdown of nations and the economic devastation this is causing) is only always good and proper, and we should just meekly submit.
They actually get rather upset when I continue to ask some necessary questions and try to hold the government accountable. They seem to think that I am being treasonous or rebellious or not concerned about human life. That last furphy is the worst of the lot, and I have dealt with it repeatedly now.
And many of these folks have actually questioned my Christian credentials. A number of them have pointed to a text like Romans 13, as if it is the only passage in the Bible on our relationship to the state, or that it means we must always blindly accept whatever the state says and does.
And I keep having these folks telling me – or implying – that we should just accept that the state knows best, that it is wise and benevolent, and that it always has our best interests at heart. They also keep telling me that we should err on the side of caution here, and fully go along with the various austere lockdown measures.
Um, when “caution” means disproportionate powers being given to the state, economies devastated, individual freedoms increasingly smothered, overzealous policing, no clear sunset clauses in place, and the cure being worse than the disease, then there is nothing cautious about this at all.
Here in Australia the situation is also becoming more and more gloomy each day. Because of the government lockdown nearly a million Australians have lost their jobs. In Victoria things are going from bad to worse. One headline said this: “Only two new virus cases as bleak state of economy revealed”.
The article says this: “Grim forecasts show Victoria’s economic output is predicted to plummet by $32 billion over the next six months, plunging the value of the average Melbourne house and sending unemployment soaring in one of the worst crises in the state’s history.” It also speaks of 270,000 Victorian jobs being lost.
Yet some of the corona alarmists dismiss all of this. They will actually say, ‘Don’t worry, the economy will always bounce back. People before profits.’ Baloney, it may be years or decades for all this to be resolved – if ever. As I keep saying, economic devastation is just as costly and can cause just as many fatalities.
And those who seem to think that the state is always benign and that it can never abuse its powers clearly have no understanding of history whatsoever. As I also keep saying, I am not sure what worries me the most: the complete and utter ease and speed in which states are locking down entire nations, or the complete unquestioning acceptance of all this by the masses of people.
Not only do such folks have little or no understanding of history, but they have little understanding of the Bible as well. The truth is, both history and Scripture give us good reason for always maintaining a healthy suspicion of concentrated power, and of the necessity of routinely questioning the state.
But let me take it even further. Many Christians have also asked if there ever can be a place for such a thing as a just revolution. I have looked at that question in some detail in a two-part article:
The American Founding Fathers on revolution and resistance to tyranny
Let me expand upon this a bit, mainly by looking at the formation of the nation I hail from: the US. America of course was the product of revolution. And the Founding Fathers and most early Christian pastors and leaders back then fully supported this.
This is not the place to go into a lengthy discussion of the history and politics of this. But offering a few representative quotes might be of interest, especially given that so many Americans right now are holding protests against the stringent lockdown policies and the economic devastation they are experiencing. Here is just a small sampling of what these early Americans had to say:
“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations … This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.” John Adams (Second US President)
“Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” John Hancock (First Signer of the Declaration of Independence)
“When the government violates the people’s rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.” Marquis de Lafayette (French-born American military commander during Revolutionary War)
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.” Thomas Jefferson (from a letter to Abigail Adams, February 27, 1787)
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson
“…no civil rulers are to be obeyed when they enjoin things that are inconsistent with the commands of God…. All commands running counter to the declared will of the Supreme Legislator of heaven and earth are null and void, and therefore disobedience to them is a duty, not a crime.” Jonathan Mayhew (Boston minister, 1749)
“Give me liberty or give me death.” Patrick Henry (from a speech given at Saint John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia on March 23, 1775)
“Disobedience to tyrants is Obedience to God.” Benjamin Franklin
In sharing these quotes I of course am not seeking to be seditious here, nor am I being cavalier. I am NOT saying Western nations are now ripe for revolution with all the mass lockdowns so many countries are experiencing. I am NOT saying anything about it is time for armed uprisings and the like.
I have always said that some government measures are quite justified to deal with a crisis like this. Some restrictions on liberty are needed. But it is not historically or biblically amiss to at least think about and talk about when states may have gone too far, and when the citizens have a right and a duty to challenge the state in various ways.
At the very least, we should be asking hard questions and not remain like mere docile sheep. I happen to support the various protests now happening in American cities over this lengthy lockdown. I think they have every right to be worried about their lives and their futures.
And as Matt Walsh has so rightly stated: “New rule. If you’re criticizing lockdown protestors, you have to preface your criticism by saying whether you still have an income. Because if you’re criticizing people for wanting their income back even as you still have an income, that’s important context for us to know.”
So once again, I will keep asking questions, I will keep holding my leaders to account, and I will keep speaking about how all lives matter – be they from the virus crisis or the economic crisis.
18 Replies to “Corona: My Government Right or Wrong?”
Careful Bill, you might start a revolution :-), inspite of the disclaimer.
A revolution of thinking, asking hard questions.
Today the Qld Premier was asked about the numbers of people allowed at funerals.
Apparently one can ask for an exemption from the 8 person restriction.
But she hid behind the “medical advice”.
I was almost shouting at the TV.
It is beyond time now to ease some of these restrictions.
What is wrong with a funeral that observes social distancing? LOTS!
But for now a funeral in which social distancing is observed between people who don’t live in the same house, may be tolerable. Lets have it, lets do it. Ask first or say sorry after, do it!
Anzac Day I will be out the front with my Vietnam Vet, neighbour.
I will shake his hand and say thanks to his face!
Horror!.
More and more Government. And not even a legitimate Government at that. I do not remember the referendum where we changed from The Commonwealth of Australia to a corporation registered in the USA corporate Exchange and Securities Commission.
The State, once brought into existence, becomes a sentient being, and will fight tooth and nail for survival, ever-greater power and ever-greater wealth. It will fight all, forsake all, in this relentless quest for power and wealth. The people who created the State did so believing it would bring about Peace, Security, Personal Empowerment and greater wealth for themselves. Without controls, the State will feed upon and destroy the very people that brought the State into existence. The only people capable of controlling the State are the State’s creators. without controls, a government of the people, for the people, by the people will quickly morph into a government of the people, for the government, by the government.
Dear Bill,
Thanks to your article we are reminded how much freedom is historically embedded in the US psyche because I can’t help wondering why Americans are out on the streets demonstrating about the severity of the lockdowns. After all they are not doing the same anywhere else in the world and the MSM has shown us how they are out on the streets with their placards but of course doesn’t enlighten us as to why they are doing it. All I can say is that Americans must be more clever at detecting and uncovering threats to their basic freedoms and from some of the things I am reading there is no shortage of people prepared to rob them of those.
Brilliant – and important to express!
(from law-abiding and respectful citizens)
Bill, I suspect most of your critics have an income and are not suffering at all during this ‘crisis’.
As you say at the end of your article, let them state this before any further comments.
I didn’t vote for Bill Gates or the health bureaucrats, Who, yet now I can’t go to church or have a coffee and sit down, read the paper. I really am starting to feel the people I did vote for have no interest in me and democracy. In Jesus name I keep telling the devil No! But it is all a bit much.
What a timely article.
Here in Spain we have one of the strictist shutdowns and it has been this way since early March. In fact today the Spanish government is debating prior to voting on yet another extension until mid May.
Only a couple of hours ago on our return from the fortnightly grocery shopping (I usually shop alone) we were followed by the local Guardia Civil car from the roundabout just entering our village. (We have been stopped various times, always asking where we live and why we’re shopping 10 km from home!) My husband said as they went round the roundabout for the second time they are going to follow us home, we were just yards from our home. They did and once inside the village before neighbours the flashing lights and siren were switched on before they stopped us, not for speed, not for a lack of insurance, ITV or host of other road violations. No, I was sitting in the front passenger side of our car when unbeknownst to us I should have been sitting in the back seat. We were asked for our identity cards and asked where we lived and where we had been. I asked if it was against the law to sit in the front seat and if so where was it that could be read by all. As usual you get some long laborious non answer with a decree something or other. They scanned my husband’s card in their system followed me home (I was dropping some shopping into a neighbour) as mine was at home. In the meantime the female officer had her mask off smoking a cigarette! My husband was not happy with me as apparently I should not have asked about the law and had the usual being a Christian stuff thrown at me.
We have kept with the spirit of this but now it is becoming like a prison, police are always around. We are sprayed with disenfectant every day. What the Guardia did today was unacceptable and over the top as they know who is who around these parts. If we receive a fine and they are stiff here, then I will seek advice because it is now big brother. Spanish females in authority do not like to be questioned on anything.
Abascal of the Vox party has accused the government of muzzling the Spanish people, I think he’s correct.
Thanks for that Jacqueline. Yes, scary stuff indeed.
Thanks again Bill. Bill, do you think churches were being disobedient by neglecting to meet during this lockdown crises?
Im hearing arguments from both sides. Some are saying that as christians, we shouldve known better and seen through this “overblown” crises and continued to meet, (we must obey God rather than men) and not give in to caeser so easily, then you have the other side, which claims, we should obey gov and show that we love our neigjbour by adhering to all restrictions.
Im sort of stuck in the middle. Your thoughts?
Thanks George. I have already penned a whole piece on the issue of church closures. See here:
Well said, Bill. I’m firmly on the Right politically. However, I’ve been quite vocal to my friends and family about our civil rights being eroded, including through Dutton’s surveillance state. Likewise, I’m critical of the Liberal Party’s lack of support for free speech, kowtowing to the Left on radical indoctrination programmes such as Safe Schools, and our national debt being through the roof.
If we don’t hold the Liberals to account, then a much worse fate awaits us: Labor or (heaven forbid) the Greens.
I found an article jointly written by Al Mohler ( and Shackleton ?) but dated 3 April. Southern Baptist Convention. I tried to link it here ( unsucessfully ) Indeed worrying that Mohler accepts this authoritarianism and over reach by repressive government. It has always seemed strange that Christians gave up meeting ( could have easily social Distancing ….how I hate that term ! ) Here is a sample :
” Perhaps the question most asked of either of us lately — whether as a theologian or a religious liberty attorney — is whether religious liberty is imperiled by government officials responding responsibly to the threat of the covid-19 pandemic. We do not think so.
Americans treasure not only the “free exercise” of religion but also the “right of the people peaceably to assemble” as articulated in the First Amendment and practiced with minimal interruption since our nation’s founding. When asked to curtail any part of it — even temporarily — Americans’ skepticism reveals just how treasured religious freedom remains and the enduring vigilance with which they maintain it.
crisis. Of course, the key to that tolerance is that the restrictions be both temporary and necessary.
Careless comments by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, for instance, threatening the permanent closure of houses of worship do little to help. Neither do reports of pastors facing arrest for dogmatically defying health officials’ repeated requests to temporarily suspend their meetings. Likewise unhelpful are imprecisely drafted orders that leave religious leaders wondering whether and how they can serve their congregations.
Still, it is government’s responsibility, in the defense of public health, to respect those rights articulated in the Constitution. The corresponding role of the church is to demonstrate love for God and neighbor by respecting the authority of the state when it requests we forgo, just temporarily, the assembly of the saints until it is once more safe to gather again.
Religious liberty faces genuine challenges and threats from the secularization of our culture and the hostility toward religion often expressed by political elites. That some have reacted with skepticism toward such requests reveals an understandable apprehension that, because of the increased hostility toward religion in recent years, relenting even for a pandemic might sacrifice such a precious freedom permanently. On the other side of this pandemic, governments will bear the responsibility to respect and protect all of our cherished rights in full — as quickly as possible.
Still, asking houses of worship to briefly suspend large gatherings is neither hostile toward religion nor unreasonable in light of the threat. Rather, this is a time for all of us to exercise prudence over defiance. Love for God and neighbor demands nothing less.
Nonetheless, the authority of the state cannot escape the thoughtful limitations of the Constitution. As the courts have explained, when the interest is sufficiently compelling, government may temporarily curb the free exercise of religion. Every court in the country would agree that curbing the spread of a worldwide pandemic is sufficiently compelling to merit government orders limiting the gathering of Americans in large groups. So long as those restrictions are applied temporarily and fairly, we see no reason, morally or legally, that Americans should balk. But churches and religious institutions should co operate.”
Bill I copied your neighbour and put a little teddy in Essendon clobber on my letter box , Sign saying ; Can I Please Come OUT soon ? I’m sending it to the Cairns Post. I just wish the mayor Manning would declare Cairns OPEN and everyone back to work ! If this lockdown is to continue another month as ScoMo has declared yesterday , all of May , there will be little left of the economy to come back to ? This is absolute tyranny from the Canberra Coup Cabinet.
( CCC ) and the Leftist Labor Premiers to destroy lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately local governance is loaded by Leftist busy bodies too.? Half of my neices and nephews are out of work or their buisnesses are closed permanently. One of my sons has lost his job and my daughter just had essential spinal C6 C7 surgery today after a painful months delay.
Please God we pray You will move these politicians to stop the torture of healthy populations mandated to house arrest. Of course You knew this was going to happen . It is a major collapse of the West under a strong delusion and hysterical reaction to Wuhan Flu. It illustrates that people are ( INCREDIBLY ? ) fearful and afraid of death and rely on draconian governments to save them ?
Please God may every anxious person seek Him and turn to Jesus , the Savior of the World . Find security in the Prince of Peace , Kinsman Redeemer, Creator and Sustainer, Healer, Son of God and Son of Man, Wonderful Savior Beautiful Lord. In the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.
What a precarious foundation the West has now that there is wide spread lack of faith and trust in God ? This madness of Cov idiocy has demonstrated the depth of the problem of unbelief and secular humanism and lack of discernment and lack of common sense and near total lack of wisdom. Christians are not even prepared to speak out and tell the government it has made a monumental mistake . It is quite depressing but I keep trying to see the larger Gods eye view as my eldest son encourages me to calm down and view it as a continuance of all the hoaxes and scams that have led people astray over the last centuries and decades.
Climate change global warming based on the demonization of CO2 . ( barely 3% of the atmosphere with Argon Ozone CH4 Methane etc ) roughly Nitrogen 80% Oxygen 20%. CO2 can not be driving the climate . It is deeply unscientific to believe that !
Climate models like the medical ones ……garbage IN garbage OUT.
Safe Schools indoctrination. Gender Bender theories and Transgender promotion and medical alterations of childrens sex organs and hormones.
Abortion ( Orwellian terms like choice and women reproductive health ) and Euthanasia. ( Orwellian term of mercy killing )
Drag Queens invited to story time at Libraries.
Goo to You via the Zoo Evolution.
Lack of Freedom of Speech ( Falou ) ……still 18C has not been retracted by the Liberals. ?
Social Darwinism…put into practice by various genocides and WW1 and WW2 thanks to Hitler and Stalin and Mousilini. etc
Racism increasing by orders of magnitude because of Charles Darwins so called Theory since the mid to late 19th Century.
Blacker skinned people are closer to Apes or Ape like creatures.
Evolution story tales told to adults. Chemical evolution of Life from Non Life. Abiogenesis.
Big Bang nonsense……. Nothing Exploded producing Everything !
Millions and billions of years that have never existed.
Refusal to gladly and humbly accept the Biblical Time Frame of 6000 years since the Creation.
Refusal to accept the Global Flood year in the time of Noah 1656 years after the Creation and Fall ( Curse …happening within a month of Creation as Eve was not yet pregnant )
Break up of the one land mass into 7 Continents by catastrophic Plate Tectonics. Flood cataclysm year .
I could go on but I think that is enough ?
Jennifer.
This is from American Thinker . Writer Christopher Pasley .
Where are all these patients going? Some are dying at home, as is the case in New York City, where paramedics are being directed to leave cardiac arrest sufferers at home if they can’t get a pulse at the scene. Those who want to go to the hospital may be afraid to do so, as the hysteria over the virus has kept them indoors. As Dr. Krumholz writes in his New York Times piece:
The most concerning possible explanation is that people stay home and suffer rather than risk coming to the hospital and getting infected with coronavirus. This theory suggests that COVID-19 has instilled fear of face-to-face medical care. As a result, many people with urgent health problems may be opting to remain at home rather than call for help. And when they do finally seek medical attention, it is often only after their condition has worsened. Doctors from Hong Kong reported an increase in patients coming to the hospital late in the course of their heart attack, when treatment is less likely to be lifesaving.
As a result of the crashing economy, hospitals and medical facilities have furloughed doctors and staff, and people who want to seek treatment simply don’t have the option. In dozens of states, governors have issued executive orders directing hospitals to stop non-urgent procedures and surgeries, which is devastating the health care industry, forcing pay cuts, layoffs, and financial uncertainty. Ultimately, this is having a negative impact on health and well-being.
Between March 4 and April 4 of this year, there were 9,780 deaths in New York City, double the usual total. But only 3,350 were from coronavirus. This means that overall death in that
city is way up as a whole. “The extent of damage from the virus may be greater than we anticipated, and the indirect effects of the virus may be greater than we anticipated,” said Dr. Krumholz, who believes that patients with cardiac problems are not seeking care because of the coronavirus panic.
Cancer is not at all different. Patients with all kinds of cancer are having treatments postponed as a result of the panic over COVID-19, and those willing to leave their homes and venture to the hospital are being told by doctors not to bother. An update on the Mayo Clinic’s website stated, “To better ensure that we limit your risk of exposure to COVID-19, all routine appointments for cancer surveillance will be postponed.”
Aside from suicide, cancer, and heart attacks, coronavirus hysteria and irrational stay-at-home orders may be causing an increase in substance abuse. “The opioid epidemic in our country basically grew out of hopelessness and isolation,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), told CBS News. “And to the extent that the pandemic is going to exacerbate the economic and social situation of certain people, this could increase the risk of people turning to drugs.”
According to an article in CBS News:
The opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic “have unfortunately crossed paths in a very lethal way,” Allegra Schorr, president of the Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Providers and Advocates of New York State (COMPA) says. Schorr represents over 45 organizations serving 41,000 recovery patients in New York, the state hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. She wants to strike the right balance between reducing both the spread of the disease and risk of overdose for patients using Medical Assisted Treatment.
The notion that keeping America locked down is saving lives — and that opening things back up is costing them — is simply not true. A safe but steady reopening of our country is badly needed, as there are health risks on both sides of the equation.
The hysteria drummed up by the mainstream media over COVID-19, in conjunction with the draconian lockdown measures being employed by many governors, is costing thousands of American lives. In light of horrific job losses and a crashing economy, calls to suicide hotlines are up over 40 percent nationwide. Although an increase in suicide calls does not necessarily translate to an increase in deaths, the fact that 132 Americans die by suicide daily is concerning. A 40-percent uptick would mean an increase of 53 deaths per day, if the calls indeed correlate to suicides. This translates to 1,590 deaths per month.
Heart attacks are a major problem as well. Harlan M. Krumholz, a doctor at Yale New Haven Hospital, recently published an article in the New York Times titled “Where Have All the Heart Attacks Gone?,” which wondered why hospitals are eerily quiet, save for COVID-19 cases.
Krumholz writes:
What is striking is that many of the emergencies have disappeared. Heart attack and stroke teams, always poised to rush in and save lives, are mostly idle. This is not just at my hospital. My fellow cardiologists have shared with me that their cardiology consultations except those related to COVID-19. In an informal Twitter poll by @angioplastyorg, an online community of cardiologists, almost half of the respondents reported that they are seeing a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in admissions for heart attacks; about 20 percent reported more than a 60 percent reduction.
Where are all these patients going? Some are dying at home, as is the case in New York City, where paramedics are being directed to leave cardiac arrest sufferers at home if they can’t get a pulse at the scene. Those who want to go to the hospital may be afraid to do so, as the hysteria over the virus has kept them indoors. As Dr. Krumholz writes in his New York Times piece:
The most concerning possible explanation is that people stay home and suffer rather than risk coming to the hospital and getting infected with coronavirus. This theory suggests that COVID-19 has instilled fear of face-to-face medical care. As a result, many people with urgent health problems may be opting to remain at home rather than call for help. And when they do finally seek medical attention, it is often only after their condition has worsened. Doctors from Hong Kong reported an increase in patients coming to the hospital late in the course of their heart attack, when treatment is less likely to be lifesaving.
As a result of the crashing economy, hospitals and medical facilities have furloughed doctors and staff, and people who want to seek treatment simply don’t have the option. In dozens of states, governors have issued executive orders directing hospitals to stop non-urgent procedures and surgeries, which is devastating the health care industry, forcing pay cuts, layoffs, and financial uncertainty. Ultimately, this is having a negative impact on health and well-being.
Between March 4 and April 4 of this year, there were 9,780 deaths in New York City, double the usual total. But only 3,350 were from coronavirus. This means that overall death in that city is way up as a whole. “The extent of damage from the virus may be greater than we anticipated, and the indirect effects of the virus may be greater than we anticipated,” said Dr. Krumholz, who believes that patients with cardiac problems are not seeking care because of the coronavirus panic.
Cancer is not at all different. Patients with all kinds of cancer are having treatments postponed as a result of the panic over COVID-19, and those willing to leave their homes and venture to the hospital are being told by doctors not to bother. An update on the Mayo Clinic’s website stated, “To better ensure that we limit your risk of exposure to COVID-19, all routine appointments for cancer surveillance will be postponed.”
Aside from suicide, cancer, and heart attacks, coronavirus hysteria and irrational stay-at-home orders may be causing an increase in substance abuse. “The opioid epidemic in our country basically grew out of hopelessness and isolation,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), told CBS News. “And to the extent that the pandemic is going to exacerbate the economic and social situation of certain people, this could increase the risk of people turning to drugs.”
Mandatory Vaccine Injections, Mandatory Electronic Tattoo/Implant, Civil Rights seriously reduced, State Survailence & Orders to Comply with various UN-Democratic Laws, One World Govenment/Control… This IS the Beat/Beast of this Global Crisis, NOT a simple Flu! Our Creator, King & Saviour is there to Hold & Assure we that Believe, that these things will pass & Greater things ARE to come. Amen!
Franco didn’t slip back into power did he????????
Big problem is some treat that passage as “thou shalt not question thy government” OR since thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God and God sets up governments that questioning the government is tantamount to tempting God.
I don’t prescribe revolution either but if people don’t get back to work soon at the very LEAST protests will spread and turn violent at worst many revolutions will breakout worldwide.
Apps can’t help you in a worldwide depression. Siri and Alexa won’t put food on the table Google home won’t pay your mortgage. Governments might be able to buy some time with money but as the saying goes “the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money”. Most people want to work and while they might take a check or two from the government for temporary relief they don’t want to be dependent. They agree only disabled and unable to work should be getting help not the abled. We have a very narrow window before we see a huge crash and global depression.
This video of a protest in Vancouver BC is interesting on many levels.
It is a poly/philosophy but is worth while looking at.
Perhaps we should be thinking about this kind of thing. https://www.bitchute.com/video/6HTajwwvyLhd/
Careful Bill, you might start a revolution :-), inspite of the disclaimer.
A revolution of thinking, asking hard questions.
Today the Qld Premier was asked about the numbers of people allowed at funerals.
Apparently one can ask for an exemption from the 8 person restriction.
But she hid behind the “medical advice”.
I was almost shouting at the TV.
It is beyond time now to ease some of these restrictions.
What is wrong with a funeral that observes social distancing? LOTS!
But for now a funeral in which social distancing is observed between people who don’t live in the same house, may be tolerable. Lets have it, lets do it. Ask first or say sorry after, do it!
Anzac Day I will be out the front with my Vietnam Vet, neighbour.
I will shake his hand and say thanks to his face!
Horror!.
More and more Government. And not even a legitimate Government at that. I do not remember the referendum where we changed from The Commonwealth of Australia to a corporation registered in the USA corporate Exchange and Securities Commission.
The State, once brought into existence, becomes a sentient being, and will fight tooth and nail for survival, ever-greater power and ever-greater wealth. It will fight all, forsake all, in this relentless quest for power and wealth. The people who created the State did so believing it would bring about Peace, Security, Personal Empowerment and greater wealth for themselves. Without controls, the State will feed upon and destroy the very people that brought the State into existence. The only people capable of controlling the State are the State’s creators. without controls, a government of the people, for the people, by the people will quickly morph into a government of the people, for the government, by the government.
Dear Bill,
Thanks to your article we are reminded how much freedom is historically embedded in the US psyche because I can’t help wondering why Americans are out on the streets demonstrating about the severity of the lockdowns. After all they are not doing the same anywhere else in the world and the MSM has shown us how they are out on the streets with their placards but of course doesn’t enlighten us as to why they are doing it. All I can say is that Americans must be more clever at detecting and uncovering threats to their basic freedoms and from some of the things I am reading there is no shortage of people prepared to rob them of those.
Brilliant – and important to express!
(from law-abiding and respectful citizens)
Bill, I suspect most of your critics have an income and are not suffering at all during this ‘crisis’.
As you say at the end of your article, let them state this before any further comments.
I didn’t vote for Bill Gates or the health bureaucrats, Who, yet now I can’t go to church or have a coffee and sit down, read the paper. I really am starting to feel the people I did vote for have no interest in me and democracy. In Jesus name I keep telling the devil No! But it is all a bit much.
What a timely article.
Here in Spain we have one of the strictist shutdowns and it has been this way since early March. In fact today the Spanish government is debating prior to voting on yet another extension until mid May.
Only a couple of hours ago on our return from the fortnightly grocery shopping (I usually shop alone) we were followed by the local Guardia Civil car from the roundabout just entering our village. (We have been stopped various times, always asking where we live and why we’re shopping 10 km from home!) My husband said as they went round the roundabout for the second time they are going to follow us home, we were just yards from our home. They did and once inside the village before neighbours the flashing lights and siren were switched on before they stopped us, not for speed, not for a lack of insurance, ITV or host of other road violations. No, I was sitting in the front passenger side of our car when unbeknownst to us I should have been sitting in the back seat. We were asked for our identity cards and asked where we lived and where we had been. I asked if it was against the law to sit in the front seat and if so where was it that could be read by all. As usual you get some long laborious non answer with a decree something or other. They scanned my husband’s card in their system followed me home (I was dropping some shopping into a neighbour) as mine was at home. In the meantime the female officer had her mask off smoking a cigarette! My husband was not happy with me as apparently I should not have asked about the law and had the usual being a Christian stuff thrown at me.
We have kept with the spirit of this but now it is becoming like a prison, police are always around. We are sprayed with disenfectant every day. What the Guardia did today was unacceptable and over the top as they know who is who around these parts. If we receive a fine and they are stiff here, then I will seek advice because it is now big brother. Spanish females in authority do not like to be questioned on anything.
Abascal of the Vox party has accused the government of muzzling the Spanish people, I think he’s correct.
Thanks for that Jacqueline. Yes, scary stuff indeed.
Thanks again Bill. Bill, do you think churches were being disobedient by neglecting to meet during this lockdown crises?
Im hearing arguments from both sides. Some are saying that as christians, we shouldve known better and seen through this “overblown” crises and continued to meet, (we must obey God rather than men) and not give in to caeser so easily, then you have the other side, which claims, we should obey gov and show that we love our neigjbour by adhering to all restrictions.
Im sort of stuck in the middle. Your thoughts?
Thanks George. I have already penned a whole piece on the issue of church closures. See here:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/04/01/closing-churches-during-the-corona-crises/
Well said, Bill. I’m firmly on the Right politically. However, I’ve been quite vocal to my friends and family about our civil rights being eroded, including through Dutton’s surveillance state. Likewise, I’m critical of the Liberal Party’s lack of support for free speech, kowtowing to the Left on radical indoctrination programmes such as Safe Schools, and our national debt being through the roof.
If we don’t hold the Liberals to account, then a much worse fate awaits us: Labor or (heaven forbid) the Greens.
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/peter-dutton-proposes-prison-for-refusing-to-provide-passwords/
Thanks Mark – yes quite right.
I found an article jointly written by Al Mohler ( and Shackleton ?) but dated 3 April. Southern Baptist Convention. I tried to link it here ( unsucessfully ) Indeed worrying that Mohler accepts this authoritarianism and over reach by repressive government. It has always seemed strange that Christians gave up meeting ( could have easily social Distancing ….how I hate that term ! ) Here is a sample :
” Perhaps the question most asked of either of us lately — whether as a theologian or a religious liberty attorney — is whether religious liberty is imperiled by government officials responding responsibly to the threat of the covid-19 pandemic. We do not think so.
Americans treasure not only the “free exercise” of religion but also the “right of the people peaceably to assemble” as articulated in the First Amendment and practiced with minimal interruption since our nation’s founding. When asked to curtail any part of it — even temporarily — Americans’ skepticism reveals just how treasured religious freedom remains and the enduring vigilance with which they maintain it.
crisis. Of course, the key to that tolerance is that the restrictions be both temporary and necessary.
Careless comments by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, for instance, threatening the permanent closure of houses of worship do little to help. Neither do reports of pastors facing arrest for dogmatically defying health officials’ repeated requests to temporarily suspend their meetings. Likewise unhelpful are imprecisely drafted orders that leave religious leaders wondering whether and how they can serve their congregations.
Still, it is government’s responsibility, in the defense of public health, to respect those rights articulated in the Constitution. The corresponding role of the church is to demonstrate love for God and neighbor by respecting the authority of the state when it requests we forgo, just temporarily, the assembly of the saints until it is once more safe to gather again.
Religious liberty faces genuine challenges and threats from the secularization of our culture and the hostility toward religion often expressed by political elites. That some have reacted with skepticism toward such requests reveals an understandable apprehension that, because of the increased hostility toward religion in recent years, relenting even for a pandemic might sacrifice such a precious freedom permanently. On the other side of this pandemic, governments will bear the responsibility to respect and protect all of our cherished rights in full — as quickly as possible.
Still, asking houses of worship to briefly suspend large gatherings is neither hostile toward religion nor unreasonable in light of the threat. Rather, this is a time for all of us to exercise prudence over defiance. Love for God and neighbor demands nothing less.
Nonetheless, the authority of the state cannot escape the thoughtful limitations of the Constitution. As the courts have explained, when the interest is sufficiently compelling, government may temporarily curb the free exercise of religion. Every court in the country would agree that curbing the spread of a worldwide pandemic is sufficiently compelling to merit government orders limiting the gathering of Americans in large groups. So long as those restrictions are applied temporarily and fairly, we see no reason, morally or legally, that Americans should balk. But churches and religious institutions should co operate.”
Bill I copied your neighbour and put a little teddy in Essendon clobber on my letter box , Sign saying ; Can I Please Come OUT soon ? I’m sending it to the Cairns Post. I just wish the mayor Manning would declare Cairns OPEN and everyone back to work ! If this lockdown is to continue another month as ScoMo has declared yesterday , all of May , there will be little left of the economy to come back to ? This is absolute tyranny from the Canberra Coup Cabinet.
( CCC ) and the Leftist Labor Premiers to destroy lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately local governance is loaded by Leftist busy bodies too.? Half of my neices and nephews are out of work or their buisnesses are closed permanently. One of my sons has lost his job and my daughter just had essential spinal C6 C7 surgery today after a painful months delay.
Please God we pray You will move these politicians to stop the torture of healthy populations mandated to house arrest. Of course You knew this was going to happen . It is a major collapse of the West under a strong delusion and hysterical reaction to Wuhan Flu. It illustrates that people are ( INCREDIBLY ? ) fearful and afraid of death and rely on draconian governments to save them ?
Please God may every anxious person seek Him and turn to Jesus , the Savior of the World . Find security in the Prince of Peace , Kinsman Redeemer, Creator and Sustainer, Healer, Son of God and Son of Man, Wonderful Savior Beautiful Lord. In the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.
What a precarious foundation the West has now that there is wide spread lack of faith and trust in God ? This madness of Cov idiocy has demonstrated the depth of the problem of unbelief and secular humanism and lack of discernment and lack of common sense and near total lack of wisdom. Christians are not even prepared to speak out and tell the government it has made a monumental mistake . It is quite depressing but I keep trying to see the larger Gods eye view as my eldest son encourages me to calm down and view it as a continuance of all the hoaxes and scams that have led people astray over the last centuries and decades.
Climate change global warming based on the demonization of CO2 . ( barely 3% of the atmosphere with Argon Ozone CH4 Methane etc ) roughly Nitrogen 80% Oxygen 20%. CO2 can not be driving the climate . It is deeply unscientific to believe that !
Climate models like the medical ones ……garbage IN garbage OUT.
Safe Schools indoctrination. Gender Bender theories and Transgender promotion and medical alterations of childrens sex organs and hormones.
Abortion ( Orwellian terms like choice and women reproductive health ) and Euthanasia. ( Orwellian term of mercy killing )
Drag Queens invited to story time at Libraries.
Goo to You via the Zoo Evolution.
Lack of Freedom of Speech ( Falou ) ……still 18C has not been retracted by the Liberals. ?
Social Darwinism…put into practice by various genocides and WW1 and WW2 thanks to Hitler and Stalin and Mousilini. etc
Racism increasing by orders of magnitude because of Charles Darwins so called Theory since the mid to late 19th Century.
Blacker skinned people are closer to Apes or Ape like creatures.
Evolution story tales told to adults. Chemical evolution of Life from Non Life. Abiogenesis.
Big Bang nonsense……. Nothing Exploded producing Everything !
Millions and billions of years that have never existed.
Refusal to gladly and humbly accept the Biblical Time Frame of 6000 years since the Creation.
Refusal to accept the Global Flood year in the time of Noah 1656 years after the Creation and Fall ( Curse …happening within a month of Creation as Eve was not yet pregnant )
Break up of the one land mass into 7 Continents by catastrophic Plate Tectonics. Flood cataclysm year .
I could go on but I think that is enough ?
Jennifer.
This is from American Thinker . Writer Christopher Pasley .
Where are all these patients going? Some are dying at home, as is the case in New York City, where paramedics are being directed to leave cardiac arrest sufferers at home if they can’t get a pulse at the scene. Those who want to go to the hospital may be afraid to do so, as the hysteria over the virus has kept them indoors. As Dr. Krumholz writes in his New York Times piece:
The most concerning possible explanation is that people stay home and suffer rather than risk coming to the hospital and getting infected with coronavirus. This theory suggests that COVID-19 has instilled fear of face-to-face medical care. As a result, many people with urgent health problems may be opting to remain at home rather than call for help. And when they do finally seek medical attention, it is often only after their condition has worsened. Doctors from Hong Kong reported an increase in patients coming to the hospital late in the course of their heart attack, when treatment is less likely to be lifesaving.
As a result of the crashing economy, hospitals and medical facilities have furloughed doctors and staff, and people who want to seek treatment simply don’t have the option. In dozens of states, governors have issued executive orders directing hospitals to stop non-urgent procedures and surgeries, which is devastating the health care industry, forcing pay cuts, layoffs, and financial uncertainty. Ultimately, this is having a negative impact on health and well-being.
Between March 4 and April 4 of this year, there were 9,780 deaths in New York City, double the usual total. But only 3,350 were from coronavirus. This means that overall death in that
city is way up as a whole. “The extent of damage from the virus may be greater than we anticipated, and the indirect effects of the virus may be greater than we anticipated,” said Dr. Krumholz, who believes that patients with cardiac problems are not seeking care because of the coronavirus panic.
Cancer is not at all different. Patients with all kinds of cancer are having treatments postponed as a result of the panic over COVID-19, and those willing to leave their homes and venture to the hospital are being told by doctors not to bother. An update on the Mayo Clinic’s website stated, “To better ensure that we limit your risk of exposure to COVID-19, all routine appointments for cancer surveillance will be postponed.”
Aside from suicide, cancer, and heart attacks, coronavirus hysteria and irrational stay-at-home orders may be causing an increase in substance abuse. “The opioid epidemic in our country basically grew out of hopelessness and isolation,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), told CBS News. “And to the extent that the pandemic is going to exacerbate the economic and social situation of certain people, this could increase the risk of people turning to drugs.”
According to an article in CBS News:
The opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic “have unfortunately crossed paths in a very lethal way,” Allegra Schorr, president of the Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Providers and Advocates of New York State (COMPA) says. Schorr represents over 45 organizations serving 41,000 recovery patients in New York, the state hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. She wants to strike the right balance between reducing both the spread of the disease and risk of overdose for patients using Medical Assisted Treatment.
The notion that keeping America locked down is saving lives — and that opening things back up is costing them — is simply not true. A safe but steady reopening of our country is badly needed, as there are health risks on both sides of the equation.
The hysteria drummed up by the mainstream media over COVID-19, in conjunction with the draconian lockdown measures being employed by many governors, is costing thousands of American lives. In light of horrific job losses and a crashing economy, calls to suicide hotlines are up over 40 percent nationwide. Although an increase in suicide calls does not necessarily translate to an increase in deaths, the fact that 132 Americans die by suicide daily is concerning. A 40-percent uptick would mean an increase of 53 deaths per day, if the calls indeed correlate to suicides. This translates to 1,590 deaths per month.
Heart attacks are a major problem as well. Harlan M. Krumholz, a doctor at Yale New Haven Hospital, recently published an article in the New York Times titled “Where Have All the Heart Attacks Gone?,” which wondered why hospitals are eerily quiet, save for COVID-19 cases.
Krumholz writes:
What is striking is that many of the emergencies have disappeared. Heart attack and stroke teams, always poised to rush in and save lives, are mostly idle. This is not just at my hospital. My fellow cardiologists have shared with me that their cardiology consultations except those related to COVID-19. In an informal Twitter poll by @angioplastyorg, an online community of cardiologists, almost half of the respondents reported that they are seeing a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in admissions for heart attacks; about 20 percent reported more than a 60 percent reduction.
Where are all these patients going? Some are dying at home, as is the case in New York City, where paramedics are being directed to leave cardiac arrest sufferers at home if they can’t get a pulse at the scene. Those who want to go to the hospital may be afraid to do so, as the hysteria over the virus has kept them indoors. As Dr. Krumholz writes in his New York Times piece:
The most concerning possible explanation is that people stay home and suffer rather than risk coming to the hospital and getting infected with coronavirus. This theory suggests that COVID-19 has instilled fear of face-to-face medical care. As a result, many people with urgent health problems may be opting to remain at home rather than call for help. And when they do finally seek medical attention, it is often only after their condition has worsened. Doctors from Hong Kong reported an increase in patients coming to the hospital late in the course of their heart attack, when treatment is less likely to be lifesaving.
As a result of the crashing economy, hospitals and medical facilities have furloughed doctors and staff, and people who want to seek treatment simply don’t have the option. In dozens of states, governors have issued executive orders directing hospitals to stop non-urgent procedures and surgeries, which is devastating the health care industry, forcing pay cuts, layoffs, and financial uncertainty. Ultimately, this is having a negative impact on health and well-being.
Between March 4 and April 4 of this year, there were 9,780 deaths in New York City, double the usual total. But only 3,350 were from coronavirus. This means that overall death in that city is way up as a whole. “The extent of damage from the virus may be greater than we anticipated, and the indirect effects of the virus may be greater than we anticipated,” said Dr. Krumholz, who believes that patients with cardiac problems are not seeking care because of the coronavirus panic.
Cancer is not at all different. Patients with all kinds of cancer are having treatments postponed as a result of the panic over COVID-19, and those willing to leave their homes and venture to the hospital are being told by doctors not to bother. An update on the Mayo Clinic’s website stated, “To better ensure that we limit your risk of exposure to COVID-19, all routine appointments for cancer surveillance will be postponed.”
Aside from suicide, cancer, and heart attacks, coronavirus hysteria and irrational stay-at-home orders may be causing an increase in substance abuse. “The opioid epidemic in our country basically grew out of hopelessness and isolation,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), told CBS News. “And to the extent that the pandemic is going to exacerbate the economic and social situation of certain people, this could increase the risk of people turning to drugs.”
Mandatory Vaccine Injections, Mandatory Electronic Tattoo/Implant, Civil Rights seriously reduced, State Survailence & Orders to Comply with various UN-Democratic Laws, One World Govenment/Control… This IS the Beat/Beast of this Global Crisis, NOT a simple Flu! Our Creator, King & Saviour is there to Hold & Assure we that Believe, that these things will pass & Greater things ARE to come. Amen!
Franco didn’t slip back into power did he????????
Big problem is some treat that passage as “thou shalt not question thy government” OR since thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God and God sets up governments that questioning the government is tantamount to tempting God.
I don’t prescribe revolution either but if people don’t get back to work soon at the very LEAST protests will spread and turn violent at worst many revolutions will breakout worldwide.
Apps can’t help you in a worldwide depression. Siri and Alexa won’t put food on the table Google home won’t pay your mortgage. Governments might be able to buy some time with money but as the saying goes “the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money”. Most people want to work and while they might take a check or two from the government for temporary relief they don’t want to be dependent. They agree only disabled and unable to work should be getting help not the abled. We have a very narrow window before we see a huge crash and global depression.
This video of a protest in Vancouver BC is interesting on many levels.
It is a poly/philosophy but is worth while looking at.
Perhaps we should be thinking about this kind of thing.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/6HTajwwvyLhd/