From Pastor to Policeman

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   If. That's the key word. IF the number of cases and deaths go down by the end of October, then the government is promising to begin lifting certain restrictions. As of right now some changes in the regulations which will be implemented soon are that contact sports will be allowed but... only fully vaccinated people may participate. Land borders may be opened... also for vaccinated people only.
  And on a more disturbing note: churches will be allowed to open for services but only at 50% capacity and only fully vaccinated people can attend. So will there be a policeman at each church building every Saturday or Sunday checking vaccination cards? What about Pentecostals who have worship services every night of the week and then Sunday morning? And who will be the one to check that exactly FIFTY percent of the building's capacity is being used? Will a contractor also be hired to calculate the square feet available for each person? No, according to the government, the one required to ensure that the sheep aren't slipping under the fence is the pastor himself. A congregation that is not complying with the "fully vaccinated" regulation will have their pastor fined. If the offense is repeated, the church will be ordered to close down. Strange, isn't it? Around this time last year, the previous political party was doing exactly the same thing. You can read the article here. In fact, part of the reason the present government won with a landslide victory in November last year was due to their public sympathy towards the Mennonite churches in particular and to the Christian community in general. But the good news is that the regulation is directed at church buildings, not gatherings, leaving quite an obvious loophole. Even if there was no loophole, most Mennonite churches would not heed the regulation because this is a time when "we ought to obey God rather than men."
  I visited with an Old Order Mennonite pastor and asked how these new regulations are affecting his community. He was surprised and wondered what I meant. Since they completely reject technology and the media, I briefly informed him of the constantly changing regulations and the newest one where pastors will be required to check that their congregation is complying with the vaccine mandate. He stroked his bushy beard and launched into a mini sermon about the mark of the beast and the New World Order. (Normally a full sermon in his church lasts nearly 2 hours.) I did manage to learn that since their colony is so primitive and isolated, the police rarely bother them. Their church services have continued uninterrupted basically the whole time of the pandemic. I also found out, to my surprise, that a few prominent members of the Old Order communities had actually taken the vaccine, hence creating strife and controversy in their church. He was extremely interested in how the more "worldly" Mennonite churches were reacting to the vaccine issue. According to him, he and other Old Order pastors and leaders had tried to arrange a meeting with the Ministry of Health officials to prove to them that masks and social distancing do not prevent the spread of the virus and that there are much better and natural ways of healing COVID-19 patients. But the Ministry of Health conveniently kept finding reasons to delay the meeting. Perhaps the government officials are to busy working hard for the citizens of Belize...










                                A. Mendoza
  

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