The visible and stubborn dedication of Pastor James Coates in his service to the Lord Jesus Christ was not without extensive blessing. After Coates’ release from prison, he returned to GraceLife church packed with new and curious congregants, combined with the old and faithful souls, both hungry for the gospel.
Here in Alberta, we saw Alberta Health Services (AHS) and their excessive enforcement stalk other potential prey over the Easter weekend. They only discovered a snarling bear in Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who refused to be intimidated by their unwelcome intrusion and trespass into his church. Their tail between their legs, we assumed AHS would take time to nurse their wounds. We were wrong.
Yesterday morning an eerie awe, drowned in dreaded realization, descended over the province as we woke speechless to a fence barricading GraceLife Church.* The provincial health authority produced a statement stating, “AHS has physically closed the church until [GraceLife] can demonstrate the ability to comply with Alberta's chief medical officer of health's restrictions.”** They might as well have said, “GraceLife will stay closed until they serve us, and not Jesus Christ.” Nonetheless, we are grateful for their honesty.
Premier Kenney
Those who read about Alberta’s present peril, if ignorant about culture, might wonder if we didn’t bring this upon ourselves? They ask, “How did Alberta let this happen? Did they not vote for the leader who is now making these decisions?” As a matter of fact, we didn’t.
In 2019, After four years of socialist government and policy, the economic engine of Alberta was seized. This province, already wounded by tanking oil prices and a hostile federal government, was decimated. Everyone knew we needed to return to the political land, that until 2015 classically dominated Alberta, of classical liberalism we never should’ve left.
The man who took it upon himself to “unite the right” and head the charge to defeat Alberta’s socialist party with one fell electoral swoop is our current premier, Jason Kenney. He’s a lifelong politician who fashioned himself a Churchillian-type leader standing up to the leftist party we wanted gone. Kenney was easily elected with a majority.
But we were tricked. Albertans were played and suckered like fools. We thought we elected a leader of freedom, but all he’s done is rule using fear; fear of Covid, fear of consequences if we don’t comply with restrictions, and fear of not voting for him and electing the socialist party again. But now we’ve suffered under his lockdowns. Now our families, businesses, and freedoms being are destroyed. Yet not wanting to lose his conservative base (which he’s already lost) and trying to acquire the socialist opposition (which he’ll never get), Premier Kenney washes his hands with dirty neutrality as his unelected oligarchy of doctors plunge the province into despair.
As previously mentioned, AHS “physically closed” GraceLife church because they failed to comply with public health dictums. But we’re confident there’s an ulterior motive to the government’s madness. For within the walls of GraceLife, there is a salvation proclaimed that’s much greater than anything AHS and Premier Kenney can offer. If the people of Alberta hear that there’s a kingdom not of this world that promises the cure for a disease much deadlier than Covid, then it’s a danger to our government, relying on people’s fear of death, to cement their rule.
In an interview about enforcing these never-ending Covid laws, Kenney said, “As you know, in our country, political officials do not and should not direct the operational enforcement decisions of police and enforcement [AHS] agencies…”*` On the outside, he’s certainly doing a good job of that.
But Premier Kenney’s weak defence of his actions is insufficient because it declares justice is no longer required to rule. He can never stop what AHS is doing, nor say that it’s wrong, lest he violate his own law and “direct the operational enforcement decisions of enforcement agencies.” Besides, if Kenney were going to say something, he would’ve already done so. Bureaucratic oppression by Covid burdened us sufficiently a long time ago.
So we must fight for freedom more than we ever thought necessary. For if Kenney’s logic is carried to the fullest of humanity’s fearful capacity, we might find ourselves being experimented on or segregated into “Christian and Covid-Denier camps.” German citizens unquestionably obeyed doctors when they diagnosed Jews as a diseased people and threw them into ghettos. We think ourselves and our nation so modern in morality and learned in history that nothing like the horrors of WW2 can ever happen again, but I’m not so sure; sin’s power and viciousness doesn’t weaken with the veil of years.
** https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/gracelife-church-shuttered-by-authorities-after-months-of-flouting-covid-19-rules
*` See * citation.
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