I received an impassioned follow up to my recent column about a Burnaby church that cancelled a Christmas production because it didn’t want to enforce the B.C. mandate on COVID-19 vaccines.
Basically, the church was told by public health officials that if it was going to stage the Christmas production, it would have to ensure all attendees and participants were fully vaccinated. Instead, the church opted to cancel. I didn’t name the church in my original column because I wasn’t trying to shame it for the decision. Instead, I was trying to detail the kind of decisions different organizations were making.
Now, as Omicron looms large and daily B.C. cases numbers once again push past 500, I’m getting feedback on the column.
“The church made the right decision,” wrote Anthony. “We’re allowed to worship unvaccinated and this kind of event isn’t any different than that.”
Others weren’t quite so understanding.
“This decision … to refuse enforcing the vaccine mandate and electing to cancel the Christmas celebration is a total abdication of the church's moral responsibility to saving lives and ending the ongoing health crisis,” wrote another. “By choosing to avoid a controversial topic, the church has given credibility to conspiracy theorists and false information peddlers that discourage people from taking advantage of this life saving medicine. Knowing full well that a large percentage of vaccine resisters come from within the evangelical community, (the church) had an absolute moral imperative to come out forcefully in favour of vaccine enforcement. Instead, the group of ‘wise elders’ chose the path of least resistance and opted to pander to the fringe elements of their community, hence guaranteeing a prolonged epidemic with more lives lost unnecessarily. Let's be clear, Elders, there is no ‘two-sides-to-this-debate’ argument here. Facts should drive your decisions, and the fact is 90% of hospitalization and death happen to stem from the unvaccinated population. You had an opportunity to be a force for good in your community. Instead you chose to go along to get along, which is absolutely shameful.”
Both are interesting points.
It seems hypocritical that people can come to church on Sundays unvaccinated, but can’t go to the same church for a Christmas production.
But, more importantly, the second opinion nails the kind of message that got sent by the cancellation.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
