Why I Support The Ottawa Protest To End Mandates

I strongly support the Truckers Protest in Ottawa ... and that has caught me by surprise.

I have had people question -- sometimes quite angrily or with accusatory tones -- why I would support ending the mandates, especially as a Christian pastor. They have called me names, they have called my character into question, they have called my faith into question. Ironically, many who have told me how I ought to respond as a Christian are not Christians themselves, and really don't know the first thing about genuine Christian faith, based on their responses. That said, there are also those who have reprimanded me, publicly and none too gently, who are regular churchgoers. Vehemently quoting Romans 13:1-4, they have suggested, in no uncertain terms, that the Christian response here is to submit to the authorities, mask up and get the shot for the greater good; it's how one ought to love your neighbour. [Incidentally, the Nazi government used the same passage in Romans to direct the churches in Germany to obey the edicts of that government as well. But more on Romans 13 later ...]

The truth is, I am a little surprised at my involvement myself. I am generally neither political nor an activist; I'm certainly not a revolutionary. And yet I feel very strongly about this issue, especially from a Biblical perspective. As a consequence, I decided to take some time to record why I support the trucker protest in Ottawa, whose goal is to end the mandates.

We were celebrating the wedding of dear friends the night that the COVID lockdowns began; it was March 14, 2020. The staff at the hall we were renting said we were the last group to use the facility; all the rest had been cancelled for the indefinite future. I was in my last semester of teaching prior to retirement, and had recently joined the pastoral team at my church. Not only did I need to learn how to shift to online teaching, I also had to learn online preaching! The rumours were flying about the COVID-19 virus and so much was unknown, so we buckled down and did our part, moving to a virtual church platform. After all, we were assured that it was "Two weeks to flatten the curve".

As the months went by, my co-pastors and I wrestled with the legitimacy of communion in an online forum. We struggled to stay connected with our congregation, how to continue doing discipleship, how to practice hospitality. It didn't take long for the damage due to lockdown isolation to surface; people were disconnected, discouraged, even depressed. That said, some also took the opportunity to step up and show love and thoughtfulness in amazingly creative ways; dropping gifts on front porches, playing harmless pranks on one another to encourage laughter and remind people that they were not forgotten. My pastor's heart was warmed as I saw people living out the reality of the family of God in a practical way. (I personally received a sweet gift of a baggie full of brussels sprouts on my doorstep ... that was one of the pranks ... 😂) 

But one thing that became very clear to us in a short period of time was this: Zoom is not church, YouTube is not church, nor is any other online digital forum. It was a very poor substitute for the life-giving gathering of believers for the purpose of corporate worship, service and exhortation. The moment the weather outside became remotely tolerable, we moved to outdoor church services, primarily in our own backyard. And I vowed I would never go back to an online forum for that purpose again.

We stuck to that. As we did not own our own building, we held our services in the parks in the summer, rented space indoors in the colder weather and, when lockdowns inevitably returned, we moved to house churches. We had some very blessed times of gathering in those varied conditions; we always worshipped in song, we preached the Word faithfully, and we enjoyed sweet times of remembering the Lord in His death, as He commanded us to. God added some to our numbers over the last two years but, far more importantly, we saw the foundations of our congregation's faith strengthened, the roots going deep. In the culture around us, we saw lots of fear; within our church family, we saw an increased trust in God.

As the pandemic progressed, the first things to be instituted were masks and lockdowns. More information started to become available as well: the virus primarily affected the elderly and those with health issues; very few young people were affected. And yet, schools kept shifting to online learning, an approach that applied almost exclusively to young people (not to mention that the negative impact was almost exclusively felt by them.) We now know that lockdowns produced nearly no benefit, but great harms. (See article here.)

Along with the school closures came the church closures. Those who continued to stay open were warned, then threatened, then fined and chained closed. The main stream media vilified those pastors who continued to meet the spiritual needs of their flocks; what they didn't portray were the SWAT teams harassing the individuals who met in smaller groups in private homes, driving the church underground in some provinces like Alberta.

Then came the so-called vaccines. With little or no testing, they were going to be distributed en masse. The justification was "We're following the science". And yet, many scientists were warning of the dangers of a mass vaccination in the midst of a pandemic, not to mention that those who had already survived previous infection were being ignored and told to get the shot anyway. Stories began surfacing of vaccine injuries; these were quickly hushed up or discounted. Concerns were raised about a vaccine passport; those who expressed these concerns were mocked. "Vaccine passports in Canada are conspiracy theories." we were told. But before too long, vaccine passports were a reality. Some businesses initially refused to enforce them, but the previous lockdowns had exerted financial pressure on them and now the heavy hand of the government made it impossible for them to stay afloat otherwise. Then, vaccine mandates in the workplace were instituted. People with medical backgrounds who did not follow the government narrative were threatened and then fired: nurses and doctors found their licenses revoked. Right behind them were university professors, paramedics, police and RCMP officers, and private businesses followed after. Never mind that vaccines are designed to mimic natural immunity, which is always superior; natural immunity was not an acceptable alternative to vaccination in order to keep your job. But "We're following the science."

And now we're dealing with Omicron. The same fear-mongering was dispensed in the media, but none of it was warranted. Rather than spend time and money encouraging good health and fitness in our Canadian population, our governments locked down gyms and instituted vaccine mandates there. Ignoring the many studies on early treatment protocols, our government mocked and ridiculed those, leaving the people of Canada with two options: either get vaccinated or get ventilated. There was no in-between. In the meantime, many countries around the world were treating their people with multi-phase medicinal approaches, including ivermectin, fluvoxamine and other inexpensive drugs with years of safety data behind them -- and seeing great success.

And now, finally, after two very long years, the truckers have decided that enough is enough; it is time for us as a country to move on. Our government has exerted undue power over its people for longer than has been necessary. With great courage, and great sacrifice, the truckers have driven from as far away as British Columbia and Alberta, gathering momentum, support and additional trucks along the way, and have converged on our nation's capital to address the Prime Minister and demand an end to the tyrannical mandates we have endured for far too long.

So why me? What is a Christian pastor doing supporting such a thing? Is there a precedent, or a biblical mandate (pun intended) for such a thing?

As a pastor in a Baptist church, with Brethren roots, my evangelical background is Protestant ... Protest-ant, as pastor Aaron Rock reminds us in his podcast. The very foundation of the Protestant movement is one of protesting against what is unjust, tyrannical and unbiblical. With an unquestioning, blind adherence to Romans 13:1-4, Martin Luther would have never nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Catholic church. Praise God he did! Romans 13 was never intended to be blindly adhered to under every circumstance; the illustration of government and authority in Romans 12-14 was not meant to be descriptive, but prescriptive; this means that the passages in question identify what government ought to be and do, not what every government is by default. And the roles -- the very limited roles -- of government are very clearly delineated there.

If you want the ultimate example of a leader, look to Jesus. You will not find a greater example of servant-leadership in the entire human race. Mr. Trudeau has forgotten this; he has forgotten that he is the prime minister, a public servant. He is there to serve the people, to minister to them, all of them, which requires, above all else, the characteristic of humility. And along with this, there needs to be a heart for the people. Instead, he has divided the people of this great nation; he has insulted, and denigrated, and demeaned, a large portion of the people he should have been caring for, should have been unifying. The fact that he won't take the time to even listen to the truckers indicates clearly that he has forgotten what it means to be Prime Minister.

And the Church was never meant to be quiet in the face of injustice. Both the Old Testament and New are replete with judgment against injustice, with instruction to support the widow and the orphan, to protect the weak and the oppressed. Micah 6:8 reads "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" As followers of Jesus, Christians ought to be in the front lines, standing up against injustice and oppression, especially in the area of government overreach, because we of all people have the greatest example of loving, caring leadership in Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. I find myself often questioning whether the Church in Canada should have been at the front of the protest, rather than the truckers.

Too often, I have found that the Church in Canada has been eager to do the government's bidding, even when it contradicted the clear instruction of Scripture. While Hebrews 10:24, 25 exhorts us to "consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some ...", many churches kept their doors locked and stuck to Zoom as their fall-back position. I can understand when we were in the first few months of 2020 and only had the rumours of a pathogenically deadly virus to inform us, but I'm still seeing churches today that are "online only". Churches are not super-spreader sources.

I have been told that I should be getting the shot and obeying the mandates because that is how a Christian loves his neighbour. This implies that doing so is the only way to show love for my neighbour ... but that's just not true. I can love my neighbour by being wise and careful about my contacts with others; I can love my neighbour by isolating when I'm sick, I can love my neighbour by bringing them a meal when they are sick. And I can love my neighbour by fighting for viable alternatives to an experimental shot with a track record of causing massive injury and many deaths.

And then there is the matter of conscience. Romans 14:4, 8 lays out very clearly the responsibility of each believer to live out their conscience before the Lord, not before other believers. The Baptist Creed states that "each person has the liberty to choose what conscience or soul dictates is right, and is responsible to no one but God for the decision that is made." Certainly, we do well to talk with one another, to receive counsel from one another, but ultimately, it is before our own Master that we stand or fall. When Christians get on social media and disparage those who come to a different conclusion than they have, they are sinning in two key ways:

1. They are not following the steps laid out in Matthew 18:15-20. You've "aired the family's dirty laundry" in public; that's not how it should be done, and God doesn't take kindly to that. You go to your brother or sister privately, not publicly. Social media shaming of a brother or sister in the Lord is reprehensible, and needs to be repented of; it is primarily a sin of pride.
2. You've gone directly against Romans 14 by implying that the way that God calls you to respond must be the one and only way to respond; by default, you are suggesting that God was unsuccessful in reaching that brother or sister, and you need to step in. This, too, is the sin of pride, and needs to be repented of.

I would suggest that, as Christians in this nation, we have forgotten what the Gospel is. We have mistakenly taken the Gospel to simply be that thing that gets us saved from hell and saved for heaven. But we've lost sight of the fact that the Gospel is for right here, right now; it is relevant and powerful for every single day of our lives ... or Jesus would have swept us all up to heaven the moment we got saved. The Lord's Prayer says "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth ..." The Kingdom of God is intended to already be impacting the life of the Church in this world today. Gospel work is Kingdom work, and it includes seeking justice for the oppressed and the wounded, advocating for truth, and for righteousness.

In Matthew 21:12-17, Jesus flipped some tables in the temple, He drove out the animals and He stood up against the religious leaders because of the greed and injustice that was being perpetrated in His temple and against His people. Unlike Jesus, I am not a king, or any kind of great man; I'm an obedient servant of His in a small church in Oshawa, seeking to follow Him to the best of my ability.

And I believe that means I'm following Him to Ottawa to join the truckers.