Yesterday, while sharpening the saw, I was having a deep discussion with a dear friend who possesses a large intellectual grasp on the big picture. Unfortunately, like many of us, my friend is deep behind enemy lines and a subject of totalitarian COVID rules that would shock our year-ago selves.
Part of our conversation covered the absence of leadership from anyone, anyone in a position of influence, who could eloquently connect the challenges of COVID regulation to the humanity of people. It is an important issue for me, because I -like most of you- can see the damage all around me; yet, we are supposed to pretend this ‘new normal’ is not isolating, not killing, not undermining the most vulnerable around us.
Poet Robert Burns called it “man’s inhumanity to man,” a premise that as humans we are destined to be forlorn, because the feeling of sadness is a steeper slope than the rise of happiness. The counteracting force to battle isolation is fellowship, a larger connection to our social network.
The governmental premise of COVID isolation, quarantine and lockdown protocols are all antithetical to the essential human need, connection. Nothing within those regulatory rules has anything to do with public health. Exactly the opposite is true – isolation, loneliness and a disconnect from people is far deadlier than any virus. However, even more deadly is this toxic and purposeful division between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
No one in a position of political influence is talking about the damage to our social fabric created by government COVID regulations. The silence is deafening; however, Neil Oliver is a voice in the wilderness who deeply understands the immoral nature of their silence. WATCH:
Mr. Neil Oliver eloquently explains his position that he will not participate in any system of forced or coerced division. When encountering an institution, business or enterprise that demands vaccinated status as a precondition; we will not participate or lend credibility toward such an abusive fiat by complying with their dictate or demand. Isolation starts with a rebellion against God, and we must be conscious about the human need to be connected.
I will not divide my humanity, nor concede my core view of fellowship, simply to comply with the demand of another that I consider my brother or sister of greater or lesser value than myself. Any business that chooses that path will not benefit from my economic participation. I choose freedom!
Not only are various governmental agencies forcing the separation of people from their community networks, we are also seeing faith-based organizations, churches, buying into the fear. Even in areas where churches are not forcibly shut down, many are seeing a structural shift where some faith leaders are willingly ostracizing their community under the guise of various COVID alarms or vaccination status. This is not good…. not good at all.
Fellowship is the essential ingredient to a purposeful life. How and why we interact with each other is how and why we recharge our core humanity. To see faith leaders willing to separate from the function of fellowship is alarming. However, as individuals we must not allow this foreboding sense to become the normal expectation.
Throughout history, large armies have been defeated through the process of division. It is not a leap to see the same strategic objectives being deployed against social assemblies including congregations. It is puzzling how many in leadership cannot see the danger in social and spiritual distance when the bond of fellowship is needed more than ever.
Each of us has a different connection to our community. Each of us has a different level of internal strength… such is the nature of living. However, distance between people is manifestly not a good outcome when combined with the lack of food for the soul.
Ultimately, it is the currency of human connection that is the true value in our lives.
We have each felt how our positive influence upon the lives of others nourishes our own sense of purpose and fulfillment. Do not lose that. Do not think you can compensate for that through other arbitrary measures; you cannot.
With local, state and federal leaders moving beyond the workplace distance; and beyond the community distance; and beyond the church distance; and now entering your home to tell you the importance of separating yourself from your family based on their vaccine status, we must evaluate these arbitrary decrees very deliberately.
Evaluate very closely what YOU are willing to give up for short term unproven benefit, if at all – because you will never recapture your humanity once you intentionally allow it to be destroyed. Once you stop flinching at emotional pain, you have not gained any benefit from the inability to feel. Instead, you have permanently lost something far more valuable.
Perhaps we are in this position today because we didn’t sit still enough and contemplate the real priorities in our lives.
Our liberty is inherent. Our freedom is inherent. The removal of both requires consent.
I choose not to disconnect.
I choose purpose.
I choose fellowship; and in making that choice I protect my own humanity.
