The weather was unusually warm at 1 p.m. on Friday as I rolled my Toyota out of our garage and headed for Michigan. I hoped it wouldn’t be that warm at my destination in Berrien Springs, whether in Fahrenheit or emotion.
I wanted to attend the Covid, Coercion and Conscience meeting in Berrien Springs—a personal liberty and "informed choice" seminar. ‘Covid shot’ mandates have raised questions about the ethics of forcing people to take a drug that they may not want. I was going there to observe the meetings, take notes, and hopefully see a few friends. The 4.1-hour trip was uneventful and pleasant.
I drove straight to the Village Church in Berrien Springs. I met the pastor of the church in the foyer (for the first time) and told him I appreciated his willingness to host a meeting like this. I also introduced myself to Ron Knott, we enjoyed a brief but amiable conversation.
Even though it was an hour before the meeting started, people were trickling in already. The trickle turned into a steady stream over the next sixty minutes. I found a seat in the corner at a small table in the balcony. The table came in handy for my iPad and elbows.
Pastor Ron Kelly opened the meeting by explaining the need for this honest presentation on personal liberty and current vaccine coercion. He was right. We haven’t heard this kind of information and emphasis from our official church, and certainly not from our religious liberty departments.
Dr. Peter McCullough
Dr. Peter McCullough spoke for an hour on medical practices, early treatment of Covid, and vaccine development protocol. I noticed that he spoke entirely without notes. There was so much information that I (a non-medical guy) will have to watch the video to get all the things I missed. I typed as fast as I could. (I wanted to be a doctor when I was young and that aspiration lasted until I learned that it would require ten extra years of schooling. Forget that!) But all the data was fascinating.
We learned from McCullough that this Covid-19 spike protein was created to be lethal. Otherwise the coronavirus is rarely lethal. I believe it. There is little doubt now that it was cooked up in a lab in Wuhan, by people asking “Can we?” when they ought to have been asking “Should we?”
McCullough said something that I have suspected for 18-months. He said that the whole world is essentially in a trance over Covid. That was certainly true last year as our world roiled in the grip of fear, and news outlets pumped electronic panic into the living rooms of every TV-laden home in America. This year the trance morphed into EUA vaccines and a frenzied campaign to force every person alive into compliance. I’m glad we don’t own a TV. Can’t afford one.
McCullough said that there was almost zero talk about early treatment of Covid, and this puzzled him at first. During other health crisis’ in the past, early treatment assumed high priority as doctors sought to keep people out of hospitals. But this time was different, there was no panel of doctors discussing early treatment. The CDC should have been doing this weekly.
In fact, there was no emphasis on early treatment during President Trump’s press conferences, just social distancing, wash your hands and if you go to the hospital they’ll put you on a ventilator (which is the last resort).
Eventually President Trump himself started talking about hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as an early treatment, and the news media went ballistic against him. The whole thing was just...so...odd.
In the past, if something might help treat a disease, doctors were usually willing to try it and report their findings so other people could benefit. This time, when a panel of (Frontline) doctors who were actually treating and helping Covid patients, reported their successes with HCQ, they were immediately attacked by a hostile news media, denounced by Fauci, and cancelled by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The whole thing was just...so...unbelievably...odd. And we watched it happen.
Without treatment, people were left waiting for the virus to hunt them, and then told “Just hope for the best and wait for a vaccine.” But a vaccine takes 5-7 years to develop, test and release.
When Dr. McCullough finished his presentation, a packed house gave him a standing ovation. I’ve never seen that before in an Adventist setting.
Friday Evening Panel
Next, there was a panel that included Lela Lewis, Scott Ritsema, John Zirkle and Conrad Vine as moderator. Each person gave a summary statement of their interest in this topic and how that led them to form Liberty & Health Alliance. It was a good panel discussion; it made me eager for tomorrow.
The Turkey
On Sabbath morning I ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to the Village Church via a detour because the road was out. Halfway through the detour my car was attacked by a suicidal turkey who charged into the road, determined to hit my car. Instead, my car hit him, the left mirror whacking him with a Thanksgiving-sized thump. Feathers flew. Here, I give Toyota credit for mounting their side mirrors on a spring-loaded support post. That design allowed the mirror to swivel upon impact and return to the proper position.
Maybe driving a Prius V isn’t so bad after all, although I was slightly ashamed of it at first (having gone from a superb turbo diesel vehicle to the Pious). After I bought it, I asked Big Mike (from church) if driving a Prius would jeopardize my ‘man card.’ He replied “You gotta have one first in order to lose it.” He’s mean like that.
Conrad Vine
The parking lot and church was packed at 8 a.m. Conrad Vine gave an excellent talk on how house churches have flourished around the world during times of duress and persecution. Here are some highlights of Conrad’s presentation.
We need to think about what it means to live in an underground church here in North America. It appears to be coming upon us.
He reminded us that when the church works together in mission, great things happen. This is true, there are many encouraging stories of people coming into the Advent movement, in spite of serious distractions and compromise in the church.
He said we are seeing a spirit of compromise among our [SDA] institutions today, similar to what happened under Soviet Russia, with different causes and motivations. In a world where truth is becoming hate speech, truth is being watered down in order to avoid totalitarian tendencies of our current government.
When persecution comes (not if, but when) don’t flee, resist or accommodate persecution. Be fully Christian in the midst of it. Live with a clear conscience. Compromise dehumanizes your soul. If I can’t be the pastor of a church in hard times, I can’t be the pastor of a church in good times. And remember, an underground church is not a hiding church.
Vine included the need to love one another as one of our greatest needs. This is something I have said repeatedly—we must allow God to teach us how to love people with whom we disagree. He is able, IF we humble ourselves. Pride in our heart brings contention into our life (Proverbs 13:10). An humble heart allows God to bring truth into our life.
Vine closed his presentation by suggesting that an underground church (in times of persecution) instead of professional leaders use amateurs. Jesus doesn’t say “Do you have skills”, but “do you have love?”
It was a very thought-provoking and timely presentation. Well done, Sir.
Bruce Cameron
Next was Bruce Cameron, who gave a legal presentation on workplace law via webcam. His black shirt against a black background created a unique floating head visual on the screen.
He pointed out that the greatest threat against religious liberty today is the lgbtq lobby. They are merciless. They violate your rights and when they get called out by a court, they say “Whoops, we won’t do that anymore.” Then they try to sneak it in through some other means.
It was interesting to me to learn that the Constitution protects public employees, but not necessarily private employees. People have no constitutional rights against another person. The Constitution only restrains the government.
Mandatory vaccinations.
His advice was solid and helpful regarding people who are being fired by dictatorial employers for being unvaccinated.
He said the 1964 Title 7 of the civil rights act covers almost every employee in America. They can’t discriminate against you for your faith. You have the right to be treated differently if your religious belief demands it.
What if your church doesn’t have a doctrine that supports your belief? It doesn’t matter, a religious belief is personal. However, if your church employer says you have to do this— you have no right to appeal the decision. The Church is protected by ministerial exception. That would be the state interfering with the church. That is a liability of being an employee of the church.
As an example, let’s say the church fires you for not getting a vaccination. You challenge them, they say “We fired you for being a lousy minister.” The state does not want to weigh in on that dispute, they would have to determine if you were a lousy minister or not. So they refuse to hear the case.
Roger Seheult
I was looking forward to the next presentation because it was going to be about building our immune system through the Adventist health message and lifestyle. The speaker was Roger Seheult, a Loma Linda-trained doctor from California.
I am still looking forward to a presentation on building our immune system through the Adventist health message and lifestyle, because we didn’t get one from Seheult. He talked a tiny bit about hydrotherapy and then launched into a pro mask, pro vaccine, pro-compliance-with-government monologue for 30-minutes. His pro-vaccine stance is fine, people can believe what they want. But his pro-government-compliance urgings at a time when personal freedom is being horrendously threatened was out of place at this conference. It was like bringing a drippy pork barbeque sandwich into a new limousine and spilling it all over the upholstery and floor.
One thing that he said that I thought was good is “Watching the news lowers your discernment skills” That’s not bad (Luke 4:23).
Sermon
Pastor Ron Kelly gave a tremendous sermon. He stressed that we are individually accountable to God and our brother’s keeper in a spiritual sense. Accountability is individual in the judgment.
Halfway through the sermon my itinerant mind was arrested by a powerful statement. Here’s the statement,
I’m going to build a case that if community health trumps freedom of decision then God himself may be responsible for untold millions of lost angelic and human lives for not intervening to preempt the infection of a sin destroying eternity squashing disease. But if choice and understanding in a direct relationship with God and the free exercise of the will is paramount to the essence of who God is, and humanity being made in His image, then stepping on that is a violation of the very being of God Himself.
Wow. This thought captivated my mind for the next hour. Then it was lunch time! Ron Kelly prayed over the potluck meal, and it must have worked. The meal was fabulous (haystacks, or straw-hats as the Anabaptists say). I sat next to a most interesting fellow named Cedric, and a Dr. and his wife who traveled down from Gobles Michigan. We had a lot to talk about.
Panel
After lunch, there was a very interesting panel discussion between Joyce Choe, Lela Lewis, Peter McCullough, John Zirkle, John Kelly, and Conrad Vine.
Mat Staver
Mat Staver, an attorney spoke on religious freedom. He did a good job explaining the ramifications of exemptions from biological drug mandates (vaccines, as we say in the pew, or the jab as we say in the country). It was worth listening to. Since this sweeping mandate thing is just getting started, it will be interesting to see how the courts respond to religious exemptions. Some say there is a better argument to be made on the basis of personal liberty and the freedom to choose what goes into YOUR body. I guess we will soon find out. Until today, I didn’t know that Mat used to be an Adventist at one time, and eventually became a Southern Baptist, leaving the SDA Church over the abortion issue.. Now I know.
Ron Knott
Ron Knott closed out the meetings. Near the end of his presentation he showed a Powerpoint slide of an abominable August 12 article written by the Lake Union ‘International Religious Liberty’ leader. In the article, the RL guy said
But I am saying that your choice not to be vaccinated will appropriately come with limitations on community participation, work and travel. You cannot fairly decry these limits as violations of fundamental Protestant principles of freedom, once you understand their true history and nature--and the even more fundamental right of your neighbors and friends to stay alive.
Knott followed that Powerpoint by recounting the story of the four Hebrew boys in Daniel 1. He then said, referring to the Lake Union article,
“This was written by a ‘specialist’ among us in religious liberty. As we move inexorably into a new dark age, this is apparently how the religious liberties of God’s people will be handled, by those entrusted to protect them.”
I almost stood up and saluted this statement. Instead I nodded vigorously like a bobblehead glued to the dash of a pickup truck on a bumpy logging road. Well done, Sir.
Summary
So was it worth the trip? You betcha.
This symposium had a really good spirit coupled to sanctified braveness. I am inspired by the people who put this meeting together. I am encouraged and inspired by Ron Kelly’s blend of compassion, and courage—we need more pastors like this man. I appreciate the well-known Peter McCullough taking time off from an incredibly busy schedule to spend 24 hours with a group of believers that he didn’t know. It was his first time ever in an Adventist church. He was deeply impressed.
I am humbled and inspired by Conrad Vine, Scott Ritsema, Lela Lewis, John Zirkle, Joyce Choe, and Ron Knott. I believe the Lord has raised these people up to speak clearly amidst profound confusion Their voices were truth in love to inordinate power; they were light in the midst of gathering darkness.
If in some small way, this meeting inspires you to stand up in courage, the effort put forth in organizing it will have been greatly justified.
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