S a n c t i t y

 "It seems quite natural for our politicians to enforce vaccination; and it would also seem madness to them to enforce baptism".

G K Chesterton - Eugenics and other evils.

"These have been subjected to captivity by the curia, and the church deprived of her liberty".

Martin Luther - introduction to the Babylonian Captivity of the Church.

We would be lying if any of us sought to state that Pinocchio's famous line "I have no strings on me' didn't apply. This present crisis has assisted in bringing many such 'attachments' to the fore, but none perhaps more so than the adoration of the image of making each of us capital for a very specific dream, (fostered by those intent on "greatness") - that for us to witness true cultural sanctity, we must exclude those deemed to be too 'selfish' to belong the ranks of the (marginally) immune.

Within this creed is the very 'ex cathedra' of unquestionable merit - the imprimatur obtained from the ritual infusion of the material which, may not cure you, may not actually protect you, but most certainly makes you one of the new commonwealth of the accepted.

This is the new 'infused righteousness' of the new religion, the unassailable Tridentine cannon of our re-set society, where what was is entirely subservient to the ascendance of the new priests of "scientific" precepts is to be all.

I have spoken here intentionally in religious terms, for make no mistake, just as "cultic" churches or movements cause harm in the name of the divine, so our new credo of specific validation is indeed the device by which a 'doctrine' brings a foul de-facing of the likeness of the sacred.

It all began in the guise of something helpful enough - a "Vaccine" which would most assuredly shield us all from something menacing by being provided to those 'most at risk', but that scenario was quickly shunted away until we reached the point where JCVI guidance (the "science") was equally brushed aside to make way for 'the magic' to be dispensed to children.

The truth about this 'wonder' was also hidden from our view. Like an indulgence of prior times, it promised much (around 90% efficacy) but would in reality deliver very little, leaving us in a situation where the world is now facing the growing reality that the future must essentially be faced without such a cure.

It is in this realm of consequence that we view the true outcome of faith in such a remedy. A "predispostion towards social conformity at the expense of autonomy" (Erik Till defining authoritarianism) is clearly in the air. When 56% of England's populace express a desire for vaccination against this virus to be mandatory, 65% are apparently in favour of vaccine passports, and 63% believe masks should be in use in all public areas, including outdoors, then you can gauge the 'mood language' of society, and we shouldn't think this is new. Massive CCTV coverage, a national DNA database and facial recognition check-outs in supermarket chains all register our acceptance and ease with the 'deposition' just stated... and the comfort that is taken from this manner of civil incarceration.

The alternative - of actual freedom, defined by genuine responsibility, is readily understood to be too costly, too heavy a burden. Our social authoritarianism allows us to become entirely defined, coordinated, "administered" and provisioned by a jurisdiction whose "measured" austerity is commonly viewed as acceptable.

Looking at all of this as someone in a regular but probably 'distant orbit' around what might be termed the Wittenberg model (Reformational Lutheranism), I have had a profound problem since the day this was all implemented nationally as something which defined church-going in general and Christianity as officially 'irrelevant' to the present. Others have viewed this response as something of an aberration on my part - that I have a "hair-trigger feel for the slightest provocation" (VOL - earth has no sorrow, that heaven can't heal), but I suspect it's because back in the 1990's I had a 'moment' when I encountered the objective power of justification that rooted me to what fuelled Paul's rage in the opening of his letter to the Galatians. 

The ramifications of this, I believe, are clear - both in respect to the perfect work God has done for us in Christ and in our response to that. When a "religion" emerges which seeks to detach us or distance us from the perfect work of Christ to gain confidence in other means (be those mechanisms deemed 'spiritual' or 'secular'), we have a responsibility to weigh them and find them wanting. If a 'system' seeks to reel us in to any apparatus which dilutes our confidence in the Gospel itself, we should counter such with the unassailable liberty made ours by Christ's shed blood alone.

From the moment it was announced that the single solution to the new threat was to 'stay at home', I found myself ill at ease, and when it quickly followed that churches were to be closed, and the majority of Christians affirmed this, that distress become paramount. How could we reconcile this with our calling and responsibilities?

The worry was marginally eased by the notion that this all would be ended in a matter of weeks (March, 2020), but when, in that Summer, I found myself conversing with ministers who were already contemplating further conformity in the Winter at the expense of Christmas, I knew that we had already accommodated too far.

That is why I say this IS a Gospel issue.

Since the summer of this past year, it's become clear that the virus has begun to become something reasonably manageable for the majority, and the decision in July to lift restrictions underlined this, but those 'controls' have not passed into memory, and very few regions on the planet are now actively pursing policies which prevent their stoic implementation, or seeking to discourage the manner of social rhetoric concerning the 'self excluded' which accompanies this. Only this week, a major UK paper re-affirmed the absolute necessity to drive such from every convention and pleasure of 'normal' society.

The partiality towards those 'beatified' by the gift of a pharmaceutical patch (continually dispensed) justifies the downfall of those 'outside the camp' and the demarcation into the safe and the unclean. This cannot and must not be so.

The slavery of the day may be comforting compared to the journey we must make, but we cannot afford to reject the actual calling to become those of the stature God requires. Freedom is gained when we know that we only overcome 'by the blood of the Lamb and the faithfulness of testimony'. May this indeed be so.

The Lord help us.