Going Underground For God: A Liberty-Based Approach To Worship By Ron Strom

Christianity, COVID-19, Free Will Vs. Determinism, Healthcare, Private Property

Leave a reply

“I caught COVID at church – praise God!”–Ron Strom

That’s a peculiar sentiment, I suppose – but one that expresses my gratitude for the opportunity I have had to worship with other Christians, maskless (shhh!), over the last few months, mindful of the risk.

Despite specific and quite arbitrary restrictions the governor of my (unnamed) state has demanded of churches, and the First Amendment implications of those rules, my own (unnamed) church decided to prioritize the Word of God over the word of the State. (By the way, do you remember when we didn’t need to hide information when we expressed opinions because our government overlords had far less power to hunt us down and punish us?)

While some churches in town were either shut down for in-person worship or were meeting but with nearly unworkable COVID restrictions, my church took a simple, liberty-based approach to in-person worship: The main room has no social distancing, and face masks are optional; another room, where the service is video-fed, requires masks and social distancing; and online streaming of the service is an option for those who choose to stay at home.

The church leadership, without consulting the latest restrictions from the governor’s office, made a decision that gave the people a choice of how to participate – while still having an in-person worship service every Sunday.

Could my pastor and elders have been fined or even jailed for defying the governor’s edicts for all this time? Sure – as was a pastor in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Pastor Jacob Reaume spent five weeks in jail for refusing to close his church. And this is “free” Canada we’re talking about – not China, Saudi Arabia or Eritrea.

By “obeying God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), Pastor Reaume, my local church leadership and countless other shepherds are faithfully prioritizing God’s Word and its command not to forsake meeting together (Hebrews 10:25).

At my church, the “no-distancing-mask-optional” room, not surprisingly, is more popular than the “social-distancing-masks-required” room. So, are all those maskless worshipers irresponsible or even foolish, as the “experts” might claim? Or, rather, are they doing what everyone does every day when it comes to weighing risks and benefits and making decisions accordingly? The latter approach is what Americans had the liberty to do in many contexts – before COVID.

If you go to the grocery store, for example, you take a risk. You might slip on some spilled guava juice on the floor and crack your tailbone; you might have a store employee accidentally roll over your foot with one of those heavy-duty carts; you might suffer a spider bite from a bold arachnid hiding in the green bean bin; or you might catch a virus from another shopper, even SARS-CoV-2.

I knew the risk of worshiping close to other Christians, but decided to take that risk. I knew the risk of inhaling and exhaling in unison with other Christians as we sang praise to God, but decided to take that risk. I knew the risk of looking a brother in the eye – and, maskless, in the nose and mouth – greeting him and offering a firm handshake and smile, but decided to take that risk.

Despite the risk and despite my having endured COVID-19 after taking that risk, I would do it all over again. For me the gathering of God’s people in weekly worship and fellowship is too valuable an activity to put on the shelf for months on end. And the beauty of liberty is that other people can choose to do otherwise. Others can take different risks to participate in other activities, church-based or not. It’s called living life.

While I mentioned Christians’ struggles in Canada, we’ve also experienced some high-profile battles here in the U.S. Pastor John MacArthur has waged a consistent, admirable and successful war to keep his congregation worshiping in California, and, shockingly, a pregnant mother was cited and removed from a church recently for failing to don a mask … in Dallas, Texas.

So, why do I praise God that I caught the virus at church? Because, unlike so many, I had the opportunity to take the risk to worship corporately with the Body of Christ, and in that activity God has blessed me immeasurably. Unlike the leaders of the church in Dallas, those leading my church decided to gather in a way that respects their people, their responsibilities and, most importantly, their God. And for that I am most grateful.

*****

“I caught COVID at church – praise God!” was published here with permission from the author (also my editor, since 2006).

Ron Strom is commentary editor of WND, a post he took in 2006 after serving as a news editor since 2000. Previously, he worked in politics. @RonStromWND

NEW ON YouTube: DAVID VANCE AND I DISCUSS ‘DEEP TECH’!

Business, Criminal Injustice, Free Speech, Ilana Mercer, Paleolibertarianism, Political Economy, Political Philosophy, Private Property, Regulation, Technology

Leave a reply

DAVID VANCE and I DISCUSS ‘DEEP TECH’! It’s a wide-ranging discussion, but it’s also “deep,” we hope.

David, who had upwards of 200,000 Followers on Twitter, was removed from that forum by the ignoramuses in charge, and he periodically gets sent to the YouTube doghouse by another set of equally asinine knaves.

My own (highbrow) content has been limited on Facebook’s (lowbrow) slum-dog forums. I’m throttled on Twitter.

Why? What have a demure writer, a mild-mannered broadcaster and many others like us done to give the billionaires in charge the excuse to make it hard for us to make a living? We distill the meaning of it all.

David and his producer, Ged, have created such a welcoming and interesting environment for me—yeah, I like those hard-to-find English niceties known as “manners” and professionalism—that we’ve decided to make the chat a regular thing.

I appreciate your support in sharing the segment and providing feedback here.

Before COVID Cartel, Scientific Skepticism Of Messenger-RNA Technology Voiced, EXPECTED

Business, COVID-19, Healthcare, Propaganda, Pseudoscience, Science, The State

Leave a reply


*trials of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases were somewhat modest, leading to cautious expectations.
*blood coagulation and pathological thrombus.
* local and systemic inflammation.
*autoimmunity issues.
*edema

From a peer-reviewed journal article, published in January 2018, I scatter below for your edification a candid, matter-of-fact documentation of known reservation about the mRNA vaccines, intended for healthy individuals.

Clearly, “science” was freer as recently as 2018, in credible medical journals, and prior to the consolidation of a consensus around the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, a consensus driven by the COVID cartel.

“…… extracellular RNA promoted blood coagulation and pathological thrombus formation… the paradoxical effects of innate immune sensing on different formats of mRNA vaccines are incompletely understood.

“… recently published results from two clinical trials of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases were somewhat modest, leading to more cautious expectations about the translation of preclinical success to the clinic… .”

A possible concern could be that some mRNA-based vaccine platforms induce potent type I interferon responses, which have been associated not only with inflammation but also potentially with autoimmunity167,168. Thus, identification of individuals at an increased risk of autoimmune reactions before mRNA vaccination may allow reasonable precautions to be taken.

I think I distilled the main concerns. But do READ:

“mRNA vaccines — a new era in vaccinology,” Norbert Pardi, Michael J. Hogan, Frederick W. Porter & Drew Weissman, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 17, pages261–279 (2018)

*Credit to artist here.

UPDATE II (11/30/021): ‘American Foreign Policy Advances the Globalist Revolution’

America, Boyd Cathey, Cultural Marxism, Foreign Policy, Ilana Mercer, libertarianism, Paleolibertarianism, South-Africa

Leave a reply

Boyd D. Cathey at LewRockwell.com about my column at CNSNews.com, “Americans Should Recall How Foreign-Policy Alinskyites Destroyed South Africa“: 

“… One writer who is also a dear friend is Ilana Mercer. Ilana writes a regular column that is printed in various venues. A former citizen of South Africa, she has seen quite personally how the ravages of Marxist and Communist revolution can destroy a civilized country and its social structures. And she has recounted that experience—and warning to the West—in detail in her necessary volume, Into The Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa. It’s a book that more Americans should know and pay heed to, for there are certain parallels with the insane post- or neo-Marxist ‘woke’ anti-racist and anti-white revolution now occurring almost unopposed here in the United States. Indeed, what is now happening here makes the revolution in and transformation of South Africa seem mild in comparison. 

In a recent column, Mercer offers a broad survey which examines the tragically obtuse and wrongheaded policies of the United States around the globe: for decades, whether under Democratic or Republican presidents—it seems to make little difference—American policy has been to impose on other countries by whatever method was convenient or available an egalitarian leftist-liberal ‘democratism,’ a uniform global model as part of a universal zeal to remake the world. Older traditions, inherited religious belief, valued customs, and forms of government and statecraft which do not hew the ‘democratic’ line and do not celebrate “equality” (as our government apparatchiks define it successively to suit their globalism) become pariah states. And soon, with the influence of US government-supported and financed NGOs (non-government organizations), ‘opposition’ groups pop up in those non-juring countries. With American funding and the enthusiastic participation of almost the entirety of the US media, including most so-called ‘conservative media’ (e.g. Fox News, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, etc.), new paper ‘heroes of democracy’ are created and showcased. …”

MORE: “American Foreign Policy Advances the Globalist Revolution.“

UPDATE I (4/6/021): Nothing escapes my loyal, and oh-so smart readers. Musil Protege writes quite frankly:

“That’s pretty good. Dr Cathey promoting you on the website that should’ve been carrying you all along.”

UPDATE II (11/30/021):
I said once or twice or thrice to paleos who have consistently submerged my work, pretended it does not exist; and wished me weakly away: Good or bad, your duty is to reflect reality among our ranks . To the extent you cover your faces and wish scary lady ilana mercer away—that she and her wonder-words would vanish—to the extent you’re reality testing has failed. Miserably. A recent eruption from an enforcer of the pack-animal camp reminded me of Musil Protege’s feisty words.