One question no one has asked me, but that I have asked
myself should a Christian resist the mandate to wear a mask in public? It is
accepted and correct doctrine that Christians should follow “every ordinance of
man for the Lord’s sake” except where those laws compel us to violate the doctrines
and commandments of Scripture. Since there is no 11th commandment
specifying that Christians should not wear a mask then is it not reasonable to accept
that mandate? If the Governor says that everyone should wear a funny hat and
speak with a Scottish accent shouldn’t we obey that as well?
As an American It is easy to find sundry and compelling
reasons to resist all forms of Government overreach but as strongly and as I stand
to support the principles of American founding I kneel only at the Cross of
Christ. I recognize as I review my Facebook postings and scroll through my on
again off again blogging that I have spent more time and energy speaking to
liberty and patriotic causes than speaking to spiritual matters but that is not
because I value country above faith it is because I entered these mediums primarily
to plead for what I perceive to be the nation’s best and founding principles.
I do not think I can lay out a case on this matter in a way
that would sway theologians and scholars but I can lay out my heart. I am not opposing wearing a mask; I am
opposing mandating masks because it is a direct threat to religious liberty.
Freedom of worship in the US is based on the basic idea of individual sovereignty.
The entirety of our founding document is structured to define the limits of
government and protect the rights of the individual. When the government
infringes on any right it infringes on all rights, but this isn’t an
intellectual or theoretical debate. For my own good the same governor using the
same executive fiat has determined that I must wear a mask and has also decided
that he has the right to decide if I can go to Church who I can sit with, how
the order of worship is to be conducted and how sacraments are to be handled. Other states are even worse than my own. I
resist the mask mandate because it is part of the order attempting to control
the Church.
I resist the mandate because it dehumanizes people. To compel
an individual to behave in a manor contrary to their own perceived best
interest is to make the individual subservient. The basic tenant of
Christianity is that God made man a living breathing individual endowed with
free will and that God so loved the individual human so greatly and so
passionately that He preferred to send His only begotten Son to bring salvation
to whosoever would receive this free gift. We cannot devalue the individual
without devaluing the faith that gives the individual his or her value in the
first place.
I reject mask mandates because they promote fear. It is
necessary to create a panic in order to compel people to behave in a self-destructive
manner and give up liberty. By rejecting the mask mandate I reject the destructive
panic that is far more dangerous than Covid 19. I will probably address this
more at a later time.
I do not believe that in any way civil disobedience should
be the default position of any Christian, but in some cases it is essential.
Was Rosa Parks right or wrong to refuse to move to the back of the bus? No
specific commandment was violated by the law and the back of the bus goes to
the same place as the front. I suspect some felt that she was in the wrong but
the stand she took for the dignity of all individuals has proven to be right. I believe rejecting the mask mandate will as
well.
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