As a committed Christian, for me one of the most devastating features of the covid era was the deafening silence from the Church (of all denominations) in the face of unethical and immoral policies and behaviours. Shockingly they failed to uphold the Scriptural directive: ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God’ (Rom 12:2) and instead did everything the secular Government asked, and more!

Voluntary closure of churches

Let’s remember, churches were not asked by the Government to close their doors completely - it was the Church of England leadership that went the extra mile and decided unilaterally to close their doors in the first lockdown, even to private prayer, which showed a lack of courage, faith and conviction.

The voluntary closure of churches, while off-licences and supermarkets stayed open as ‘essential services’, was devastating to many Christians, demonstrating the lack of belief by the Church in their essential spiritual role to give support, comfort and hope in the face of the (manufactured) existential crisis the public were encouraged by the Government, and media, to believe they faced.

It also sent a powerful message to both Christians and wider society that even the Church was afraid of the ‘virus’. There are multiple commands in the Bible that we are not to fear in any situation. Rather, we are told that "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim 1:7), which, by use of the contrast, implies that fear renders us powerless, unloving and unwise - something that was evident throughout the Covid era. In the Old Testament, God tells Joshua: ‘Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go’ (Josh 1:9).

Surely this was the moment – when the secular populace was in abject terror of death, prepared to do anything to reduce the risk they had been told to fear – for the Church to step up and give the world a strong message of hope in the face of death.

Surely this was the moment – when the secular populace was in abject terror of death, prepared to do anything to reduce the risk they had been told to fear – for the Church to step up and give the world a strong message of hope in the face of death. To preach the Gospel of repentance, forgiveness of sins and redemption and share the good news that Jesus has conquered death. To speak an eternal perspective to a perennial human situation and provide prayer, comfort and community to those who were suffering.

There appeared to be a complete lack of historical knowledge that even in Spanish Flu or plague outbreaks, churches were not closed, as their vital role to provide spiritual support and hope in the face of death was understood. And at the very least, churches could have conducted services outside in churchyards or parks – where people could ‘socially distance’ easily.

The Church’s acquiescence

Some point to the fact that believers are called to ‘’obey the rulers who have authority over you’’ (Rom 13:1). But surely such a call to obey the Government is mandated only on secular issues. It is clear from reading the rest of the Bible that it does not apply when it interferes with the practice of one’s faith "Then Jesus told them, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s’”. Have people forgotten that Paul repeatedly ended up in prison for disobeying the authorities?

It is clear from the Bible that we are not meant to blindly obey the authorities, and are responsible for our own actions – whether good or evil – so we have an obligation to ‘test the spirit’ of a law. Every day, in countries where practising Christianity is illegal, thousands of Christians defy the authorities by worshipping and meeting in secret, despite risking imprisonment or even death.

Where was the testing of the spirit behind the policies (1 John 4:1), which were manifestly not good, acceptable or pleasing?

The acquiescence of the Church to the fear narrative and inhumane measures is hard to forgive. As Christians, we are meant to use spiritual discernment and Scripture to avoid being deceived into following ungodly secular ideologies or the worship of false idols. Where was the testing of the spirit behind the policies (1 John 4:1), which were manifestly not good, acceptable or pleasing? Or the much-needed godly wisdom to call out human folly and hubris and prevent the catastrophic harm that resulted from humans playing God?

The failure of Church leaders to call out the terrible cruelty of the covid measures – people left to die alone and uncomforted, children forced to wear masks for hours a day in schools, young people denied social interaction with their friends, anti-social distancing preventing human contact, the elderly locked away in care homes and separated from their families for months – showed a lack of wisdom and discernment to identify evil.

The failure of the Church to push back on the mandating of masks (a powerful symbol of fear and oppression that has no place in a church), anti-social distancing and banning of singing in church was shocking. The Bible tells us to judge a tree by its fruits (Matt 7:18-20), and the fruits of so many covid policies were isolation, cruelty, pain and suffering. They were dehumanising and a war on all things good and godly, things that make life worth living. A war on joy, love and life. Yet the Church remained silent in the face of this blatant evil.

Vaccine violations

Then we came to the covid vaccine rollout, in which there were egregious violations of the most fundamental principles of medical ethics, which uphold the equal value and dignity of every person and the right freely to decide what happens to their own body.

With NO data to rule out harmful medium- and long-term effects, it was obvious (to anyone who was paying attention) that the regulators were authorising blind.

The failure of the authorities to implement the precautionary principle was staggering, setting out to vaccinate every person in the country as quickly as possible with a product using a novel gene-based technology, with no medium- or long-term safety data, and regardless of their individual risk/benefit profile. Never before has a vaccine in clinical trials been administered to children and pregnant women on such a mass scale. With NO data to rule out harmful medium- and long-term effects, it was obvious (to anyone who was paying attention) that the regulators were authorising blind.

It is arguable that no one gave valid informed consent to vaccination, as coercion, fear and lies were used by the authorities to pressure and shame people into acting against their best interests. Many took the jab under false pretences, told it would protect others, which was a lie. Many were forced to take a vaccine to keep their job, which is the most extreme form of coercion.

Vaccine as Saviour

Yet, instead of advising caution at the blatant recklessness of the rollout, or concern about the use of fear and coercion, the Church embraced the ‘Vaccine as saviour’ narrative peddled by the media, public health and politicians. There was a complete lack of scrutiny of, or comment on, the vaccine ingredients, such as the use of aborted foetal cells in development, or the gene-based nature of the novel vaccine technology itself, which risks interfering with our genetic code.

After months of being closed to worship, and while restrictive covid measures were still mandated in church, the churches re-opened as vaccine centres. Durham Cathedral even introduced covid passports for entry to their Christmas 2021 services, which was beyond belief. Denying people entry to church to worship God and hear the Gospel by making it contingent on health status and the acceptance of a test or vaccine was an abomination.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, argued that taking a covid vaccine was a moral issue for Christians and implied that this is what Jesus would have done.

The coercion of Christians to take the jab was intense. Church leaders were widely photographed being vaccinated and encouraging their flock to follow suit – telling them that it was their Christian duty to take a jab as an act of love to their neighbour. Just before Christmas 2021, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, argued that taking a covid vaccine was a moral issue for Christians and implied that this is what Jesus would have done.

This excellent Substack article, written earlier this year, is a horrifying reminder of the folly of multiple Church leaders, including at least a dozen bishops and prominent leaders from many Christian denominations, who championed the vaccines. Welby even told the BBC that ‘the vaccine is safe, and everybody should have it’ and posted on social media that ‘The rapid development of the vaccine is an answer to prayer – and it is central to the recovery from this terrible pandemic. Jesus Christ calls us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Getting the vaccine is part of that commandment . . . please, please accept the invitation to get the jab when it comes – and encourage everyone around you to do the same.’

Scientism

It is clear that most people, including church leaders, were deceived into following a false religion, ‘Scientism’. In Scientism (not science) you are called to ‘follow The Science’ (as a Christian I follow only Jesus). Anyone who questioned ‘The Science’ (a false god) was a heretic, and the scientists and public health officials were the infallible high priests. Anyone who spoke against the vaccines was persecuted, smeared and censored like a heretic, in the new religion. Antivaxxers became social pariahs, blasphemers of the false idol. The ongoing vaccine ritual (returning to revaccinate every 4-6 months) is a pseudo-religious sacrament that flies in the face of evidence that the vaccinated keep getting covid!

On Wednesday October 30, I attended an online meeting of church leaders and heads of ministries, organised by Laura Brett and Kirstie Wainwright (Cheshire Filling Station), with Dr Clare Craig and Professor Angus Dalgleish, to discuss the continuing serious fallout from the covid lockdowns and vaccine rollout. In my short video presentation from that meeting, calling for church leaders to repent of the part they played in the vaccine rollout, and to acknowledge and help the vaccine injured and bereaved get healing and justice, I said: ‘We need a strong church voice to uphold absolute moral values and ethical principles based on the sanctity and dignity of every human life. There is an urgent need for spiritual discernment and action in the face of immoral and unethical secular ideology. We cannot be silent in the face of evil.’

Anyone who questioned ‘The Science’ (a false god) was a heretic, and the scientists and public health officials were the infallible high priests.

I urged the churches to open their doors to the vaccine injured and bereaved, whose abandonment by the authorities and public has been shameful and immoral; to offer them much-needed refuge, support and healing and to advocate for justice and compensation.

Lack of wisdom

Recently, Justin Welby finally announced his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury following intense criticism of his handling of a report into a prolific child abuser, John Smyth, associated with the Church of England. In his resignation statement he apologies for his role in a ‘long-maintained conspiracy of silence’ exposed by the Makin Review. In the current context, it is worth revisiting and reflecting on this interview he gave to ITV News at Ten in December 2021, which is astonishing and chilling. Welby implied that those who refused to get a covid vaccine were immoral. I hope and pray he will also publicly apologise for the pivotal role he played in pushing dangerous genetic products onto his flock and others who trusted him.

Many Christians were heartbroken by the closure of churches, the pushing of the vaccines and the lack of wisdom in much of the Church leadership.

Immense damage has been done to societal cohesion, including church communities, by divisive covid rhetoric and policies and the Church’s complicity in this. Many Christians were heartbroken by the closure of churches, the pushing of the vaccines and the lack of wisdom in much of the Church leadership.

Some sort of ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ process is needed, which will include leaders speaking from the pulpit on these issues and apologising to their flock for wrong decisions made - modelling the Christian message that in Christ there is the wonderful offer of grace – for repentance, forgiveness and redemption through Jesus’s blood, and a duty to shine a light into the darkness to bring healing and hope in our communities. ‘You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (John 8:32).

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Addendum: The Vaccines saved countless lives?

It is often argued that the sacrifice of the few injured or killed by the vaccines is justified by the "millions of lives saved". My first response is that this utilitarian argument is profoundly un-Christian, as it denies the individual sanctity and dignity of each human life. We cannot just play the numbers game, treating human beings as dispensable, and deliberately cause the sacrifice of a few (who may never have been at risk from Covid) to "save" others. However, the much touted claim of "millions of lives saved" is sadly another deception that has been widely debunked - for example here, here and here.

As explained in detail in the linked articles, the claim is not derived from real world data, but is instead based on the same type of flawed computer modelling that put us into lockdown in the first place; based on outlandish and incorrect underlying assumptions in the computer model resulting in a grossly inflated estimated number of lives saved. Some would go further and argue that there is no evidence that the vaccines have saved a single life, given that in the clinical trials the vaccine group had higher all-cause mortality (deaths from all causes, not just Covid) than the control group and that it is now undeniable that the jabs do not prevent infection or transmission of the virus.

It is well worth reading our fully referenced Open Letter to the MHRA, JCVI and Matt Hancock in November 2020, to see what was known and accessible in the public domain before the vaccines were rolled out. It is astonishing how many of our warnings have come to pass. This shows how important it is for individuals and institutions like the church to properly interrogate claims made by the establishment and in the media and engage directly with primary source data, to guard against deception and being led off the straight and narrow path. We must question everything!

Dr Elizabeth Evans is a retired doctor in part-time private practice. She is co-founder and CEO of the UK Medical Freedom Alliance, a member of HART since inception and a member of the Children’s Covid Vaccine Advisory Council (CCVAC).