God over government? (part 2)

The 2020s and the 1930s

May 06, 2024

Dear Church Leaders

This is the second part of a two-part article relating to the question of how Christians apply passages such as Romans 13, particularly in the context of the covid era, aspects of which have been discussed in other recent posts.

In the first part, I considered Romans 13 in the context of the covid tyranny of 2021. This is particularly important in the context of plans being pushed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) — whose largest financial contributor is the German government — that seem to have the aim of enshrining tyranny into law.

Here is the outline structure of part 1 (with links):

Part 1 A consideration of the context

What I wrote in 2021
The height of the covid tyranny

Some further reflections on Romans 13

Why can we not put the covid era behind us and move on?

In this second part, which is again rather longer than usual, but arguably necessarily so, I will discuss some aspects of the broader historical context.

The covid tyranny revisited

Germany in 2021

Firstly, consider some of what was actually happening in Germany in 2021. Here is former British rower Alex Story (who competed in the 1996 Olympics) commenting on several stories reported from Germany in 2021 (transcript below):

There are some pretty scary stories…
The first one was reported in Die Welt, which is the equivalent of The Guardian in Germany. It’s essentially about the ritual humiliation of children who are asked to go to the front of the class and state their vaccination status daily. Those who are vaccinated are applauded. Those who are not [vaccinated] have to explain why they are not…
[A second one] is the discussion of wrist bands for people to go shopping… those people who don’t have the wrist bands won’t be able to go shopping across a multitude of stores.
The third one, which I think is possibly more reminiscent of 1930s Germany, was an attack on coffee shops who were giving out coffees for free for people who were either vaxxed or unvaxxed. And that was in Berlin and it was reported in Der Tagesspiegel [German newspaper, literally “The Daily Mirror”]. And in fact the campaign against these various coffee shops was launched by Der Tagesspiegel itself.

…compared to Germany in the 1930s

I can almost hear people responding:

“…possibly reminiscent of 1930s Germany?!”

I wonder what Alex Story would make of this more-recent analysis from former physics professor Denis Rancourt estimating that around 17 million have died from the covid injections globally.

But that aside, and mindful of Godwin’s Law, I invite you to consider the following…

Here is Holocaust survivor Vera Sharav speaking in 2021 (text below):

I was only three and a half when my family and I were evicted from our home and deported to a concentration camp… Fear of infectious epidemics was exactly what the Nazis used to demonise Jews as spreaders of disease. Today the unvaccinated are being accused of being spreaders of disease.

And here is another Holocaust survivor, age 93, speaking at a 2021 anti-lockdown protest (transcript below):

I am in fact a survivor of the Holocaust. And the worst thing I have to tell you… even then nobody told us it was done for our own good. We all knew what was happening. And when I think today, when I see people masked, I think of the yellow star, which gave everybody liberty to aggress me, to insult me, to call me a carrier of disease, to spit on me even.
I would like to tell you that this [covid era] is worse. It is more insidious. It concerns more people… There is a hypocrisy in the public narrative that is absolutely unbearable… to say that we are doing this to protect the old. I would [rather] die in a state that gives me freedom than live [with this].
I have already outstayed my welcome by living here, and my life expectancy is probably not great, but I would gladly exchange this for the lives and livelihoods and happiness of generations that come after me to live their lives as I have [done]. To have masks, to see people defile their children with masks, is something totally unbearable to me.

And here is Vera Sharav again as the first speaker in this 4 -minute video (transcript below) featuring thought-provoking clips and commentary:

Those who are responsible for the pandemic have used two of the weapons the Nazis used… which was fear and propaganda. The propaganda feeds the fear, foments it, hardens it.
At that time, the fear was against Jews who were accused of being spreaders of infectious disease. The thing that I realised, and was horrified by, was that medicine under the Nazis had been totally taken over by government. And so I realised that panic was being fomented so that people would lose confidence in their ability to discern things. And so the “best way” is to listen to public health officials, the “experts”…

Then Bill Gates:

The thing that will get us back to the world that we had before coronavirus is the vaccine, and getting that out to all 7 billion people.

And Vera Sharav again:

Bill Gates assumes the mantle of one who has authority in a medical public health field [despite having no formal medical training].

Other voices:

There has never been a “public health”. The only health that ever existed was the individual’s health. Every single medical procedure needs to be considered with regards to how it affects this individual patient. Is it necessary?

The Nazis never presented themselves as negative, destructive people. They presented themselves as a party… trying to make things better. And that’s what they taught people. When you were taken to a ghetto, it was for your own protection. When you were taken to a camp you were told, “We have room for you there, and food and shelter. We want to help you.”

My grandfather who was in the French army, he got into camps, and he always feared (after that) normal doctors. He saw them doing all kinds of experiment on people… entering the barracks with huge syringes… and things like that.

There were people sent — in Australia — to camps [see later]. They didn’t kill them there. But the process of what we are going through is part of what they were doing to them. Most people just think, “Well, we need do what the government says, and they want what is good for us.” And they trust them and they think that’s the way it is. It’s so scary that you can understand what happened there. And [then] it happens again.

It’s a déjà vu. People tell us what to do now. People are telling us how to do… how to move… how to shop.

We went like sheep in the Second World War. It’s happening now all over the world with this covid. I’m against people who are telling me what to do with my body because it’s a lie. It’s a big lie. When people are so blind I can’t stand it. I have to try and convince them to open their eyes, to open their ears, not to go like sheep…

It’s a race between enslavement and expansion of global human consciousness, because there are many, many, many, many more of us. I’m advocating for non-violent civil disobedience. And absolute rejection of all the mandates. Resist…

This 2021 letter from Holocaust survivors to the Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) also draws parallels between the events of 2021 and the Holocaust:

The writers go on to outline the ethical issues, drawing parallels with events around 80 years ago:

Another letter from Nazi Concentration Camp survivors can be found here.

Shocking though it may seem, this is how some people who experienced the 1930s described their experience of the 2020s. I invite you to make up your own mind from the above (and what follows below) as to the validity of the comparison.

The road to slavery?

Vera Sharav also warns of a broader agenda, particularly in the context of the push for digital identity:

[In the 1930s and 1940s] IBM technology enabled industrialised-level genocide. And they are now at it… again. [In 2021] It was the IBM passport that Governor Cuomo of New York State contracted. What people need to understand is that the digital identity that they now are pushing… that is the ticket to slavery.
Once they have that identity — and they intend to embed it in our bodies — they have then full control of our lives. Remotely you won’t even know who it is. It doesn’t have to be your enemy… Remotely — click, click — they can stop everything. They can stop your bank account. They can stop your credit. They can take your mortgage away. They can do everything they want if they have your identity. So for people to go blindly into that is worse than suicide.
Trudeau [in Canada] gave a hint. He showed that [they] can stop your bank account, mortgage. He even separated children from the truckers. This is so insidious. This is so horrific. If people don’t understand that this can happen to them if they don’t accept the fifth shot or the sixth shot… That is exactly the kind of power and authority that one would be giving up if one continues along the road of obeying.
Obedience is the road to slavery.

For those interested, a speech from Vera Sharav at Nuremberg to mark the 75th Anniversary Event of the Nuremberg Code can be found here or here.

How did the German authorities respond? According to this November 2023 article, the “district prosecutor [of Nuremberg] was tasked to assess the merits of a criminal charge of ‘incitement’ due to alleged ‘trivialisation of the Holocaust’…” And Sharav “continues to be the object of harassment and intimidation by the State Prosecutors of Bavaria”.

Sharav is not alone. Consider e.g. this report on another Holocaust survivor, Inna Zhvanetskaya:

There is much more that could be added here. For those interested in exploring further:

Another of Vera Sharav’s speeches (with transcript). A five-part film, Never Again is Now Global, is also available:

A letter to the German Bundestag (a fairly long but worthwhile read):

A summary of the recent experiences of CJ Hopkins — an American playwright, author, and political satirist living in Germany:

An article showing “how the capture of the judiciary in Nazi Germany has been directly mirrored in Australia”:

And of course the final section of part 1 of this article describing how the WHO is currently seeking to extend its powers so that it could enforce covid-style border closures, quarantine measures, and vaccine passports on all member countries, including the UK. It would do so in response to the threat of a pandemic, or the emergence of one, or some other public health crisis which the WHO would identify and define (in much the same way as it has (re)defined “pandemic”, setting the bar rather low).

The response to the covid tyranny

Context: the “good German”

I strongly recommend this article as context for this next section:

It begins:

The most important event in recent human history, which shaped the world as it is today, was the Second World War. It is a topic covered, to this day, in a huge number of books, documentaries, plays and movies. Each writer, director and screenwriter tells a piece of the story. Each one with their own viewpoint and approach…
However, even after studying and watching everything possible, for me, one single character always remained a great mystery: it is the “good German”. This person was the normal citizen of Germany, not radical, but who did not react when the Holocaust occurred. He was part of a society that accepted the elimination of 6 million Jews with a terrifying normality.
It wasn't five or ten thousand people. It was six million. From within Germany, the Jewish population was relevant: 566,000 citizens. Therefore, practically every German had contact with some Jewish family. They were a society that lived in reasonable harmony. Ordinary Germans went to Jewish businesses. Germans had Jewish employees. Their children attended the same schools. They all went to the same clubs, the same restaurants, and played sports together. Friendships were common and natural.
Less than ten years later, how do you, an ordinary citizen, accept that a family of neighbors is removed on trains to concentration camps? How do you accept that your Jewish friend's neighborhood business is closed, with the owners removed from society, without any protest?
Hate speech, the book “Mein Kampf”, defamation, repression, dictatorship, censorship, and Goebbels’ massive propaganda, no matter how devilishly brilliant they may have been, in my view, were never enough to explain the contempt of almost a whole society for the lives of other human beings.
For something of these proportions to occur, it is not enough for there to merely be a dictatorship. It needs a totalitarian state where the population is in harmony with the dictatorial government. It needs a people that collaborates by denouncing, helping, and not caring about the evil in front of them. For this, the population needs to understand the opposite: that evil is good [cf. Isaiah 5:20].
Now, by studying the history of previous pandemics, I have discovered some clues to try to solve the mystery…

It is in the context of…

these previous pandemics, discussed at some length in the article
“the pseudoscientific [and false] consensus that [covid] vaccines protect people ‘around you’ massively disseminated [by the media]”
one particular news story

…that the author Filipe Rafaeli says he finally understood the “good German”:

The child [in the above news report] was not infected. The parents were not infected. And even with vaccines that do not reduce transmission, they decided that the parents are to blame for the pandemic and sent a message: that their child deserves to die because of it.
What is the difference between the health professionals in those hospitals and the doctors who applauded Dr Jost Walbaum [a leading German physician, and “the highest health authority”, who was mentioned earlier in the article]? What is the difference between them and those who saw the trains full of children going to Auschwitz and didn't care? None. They made me understand the “good German”. A contempt for the lives of others…

He adds…

…the “good German” was a guy who believed he was “following science”. I have not found any record of Germans who opposed this fear created against Jews. But I believe that probably when someone did object, he was accused of being a “science denier”.
It doesn't matter that today we have 10 billion [covid vaccine] doses administered, and every reasonably well-informed person knows or has heard of someone who, even if vaccinated, contracted covid. People believe the authorities who call themselves spokesmen of science, not the science itself.

…and gives examples of modern day “good Germans” from across the Western world:

Austria, the first country to easily join the Third Reich, hires agents to persecute those who do not want to participate in the medical experiment. Austrians who are not vaccinated face fines of up to 3600 euros for non-compliance, and can go to prison if they refuse to pay, reports the Swiss website Blick. In addition, Austrian health authorities have even put all unvaccinated people under house arrest.
Australia, on the other hand, went further. Afraid of the unvaccinated, they created their own version of the Warsaw Ghetto. It is located [near Darwin in a facility that was “originally built to house 3000 workers employed on a gas project”].

Howard Springs Quarantine Facility, near Darwin, Australia (Google Maps)

Here is another example in this 2021 footage of what was reported to be a double-fenced Australian covid internment camp in Brisbane:

And here is the personal account of Australian Hayley Hodgson, 26, who moved to Darwin from Melbourne to escape the never-ending lockdowns — only to find herself locked up in a 2000-capacity covid internment camp without even having the virus:

Rafaeli continues:

…the Australian idea of reviving the Warsaw Ghetto has inspired doctors elsewhere to say phrases worthy of Dr Jost Walbaum. “If I had the opportunity and the authority I would do my best to create concentration camps for the unvaccinated,” said the medical director of the Villa Sofia — Cervello hospitals in Palermo, a city that in the past showed appreciation for Mussolini.
Moreover, today it is possible to understand how authoritarianism is implanted with the support of a frightened population and a press that refuses to do its job. In a program on television in Brazil, a reporter afraid of the unvaccinated asked about the implications for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. A public official explained that parents can face fines and even have their children taken by the state.
In the aftermath the reporter questioned whether ordinary people should report the parents to the authorities. “You should report them,” replied the law judge. “As was done with Germans who hid Jews in the basement,” journalist Paula Schmitt commented.
In Canada, the country that has already asked its citizens to report people who criticize government health decisions, Judge Cathaline Heinrichs has banned a father from sharing social media posts related to covid with his son. And it went further: she prohibited the father from discussing the covid vaccination with his 11-year-old son or providing the child with “other information about the vaccine or the disease” such as the Pfizer study fraud news published in the BMJ [you may have to click more than once for the article at this link to load].
“Fear corrupts the greatest certainties,” said… a physician friend, professor of medicine, who has treated 750 covid patients with only one death — just the one person who did not do all the treatment. He asked for anonymity so as not to suffer persecution… or defamation.
“History repeats itself, first time as tragedy, the second as farce,” Karl Marx once said.

Here is Vera Sharav drawing more parallels between recent events and what happened in Nazi Germany:

It’s a very, very dangerous thing to do, to follow [the authorities]. That’s what happened in Germany a century ago. All Germans were not evil. But most of them — the vast majority — simply went along.
And of course, yes, it was wartime. And we are always being told about war. And now it’s a war on a virus. [But] that kind of thing should not eliminate basic human rights and basic respect for individuals… medicine especially, which is so intertwined, as it was then.

Re the early 2020s, it is surely not too much of a stretch to imagine that it might one day be written similarly that:

“It’s a very, very dangerous thing to do, to follow [the authorities]. That’s what happened during the covid hysteria… The people were not evil. But most of them — the vast majority — simply went along.”

Doctors in Nazi Germany

Doctors in Nazi Germany were leaders in eugenics and “euthanasia”:

The Nazi doctors used eugenic ideals to justify sterilizations, child and adult “euthanasia,” and, ultimately, genocide.

According to this article, more than half of all German doctors became early joiners of the Nazi Party:

During the Weimar Republic in the mid-twentieth century, more than half of all German physicians became early joiners of the Nazi Party, surpassing the party enrollments of all other professions. From early on, the German Medical Society played the most instrumental role in the Nazi medical program, beginning with the marginalization of Jewish physicians, proceeding to coerced “experimentation,” “euthanization,” and sterilization, and culminating in genocide via the medicalization of mass murder of Jews and others caricatured and demonized by Nazi ideology. Given the medical oath to “do no harm”, many postwar ethical analyses have strained to make sense of these seemingly paradoxical atrocities. Why did physicians act in such a manner? Yet few have tried to explain the self-selected Nazi enrollment of such an overwhelming proportion of the German Medical Society in the first place. This article lends insight into this paradox by exploring some major vulnerabilities, motives, and rationalizations that may have predisposed German physicians to Nazi membership — professional vulnerabilities among physicians in general (valuing conformity and obedience to authority, valuing the prevention of contamination and fighting against mortality, and possessing a basic interest in biomedical knowledge and research), economic factors and motives (related to physician economic insecurity and incentives for economic advancement)…

Doctors were complicit in Holocaust atrocities:

But in the words of the above article…

These weren’t just a few “bad apples,” however, who knowingly harmed thousands of people in Auschwitz and other death camps. To understand what happened, and how it happened, it’s important to look at the entire tree from which the apples came: medicine, public health, and biomedical research in Nazi Germany involving doctors, nurses, midwives, and many others, and encompassing disciplines such as psychiatry, neurology, neuropathology, anatomy and physiology, infectious diseases, surgery, genetics and twin research, and beyond.
Physicians voluntarily joined the Nazi party and, without any pressure, took part in forced sterilization in hospitals between 1933 and 1939, in forced human experiments at Auschwitz and other camps, and in programs to kill individuals diagnosed as “unworthy of life,” including people with mental illness and developmental disabilities. These programs were implemented in collaboration with nurses and midwives.

Doctors in the covid era

I wonder how history will record the actions of doctors in the covid era. I am thinking not so much of doctors in Germany but in the UK:

The widespread use of Do Not Resuscitate orders:

The death penalty drugs used by care homes:

The promotion of so-called covid vaccines, especially to children (something still happening at the time of writing):

Is it any wonder that so few doctors are speaking out about the above, or even want to talk about it. Or indeed the fact that rather more people than usual have been dying recently.

That said, we should be wary of passing judgement too readily on doctors. How many of us in their situation — or that of various others — would have acted differently? With Matthew 7:1-5 (“Do not judge…”) in mind, it is important also to consider the role of wider society and our own individual roles.

Wider society in the covid era

It is sobering that, according to a US poll in early 2022, “forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats [favored] governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they [refused] to get a COVID-19 vaccine.” (The wording of the survey questions can be found here.)

And according to this article from November 2021 (featuring a poll whose survey questions I could not find), “almost half of UK adults would [have backed] lockdown for [the] unvaccinated”:

Shortly afterwards, this article, by widely-recognised BBC News anchor and former Journalist of the Year Andrew Neil, appeared in the UK press (though NB the figure of five million substantially understates the number of “vaccine refuseniks”):

The propaganda was relentless. There are many more examples I could cite, such as those documented here and here. Sadly, I suspect the views of the likes of Andrew Neil views were representative of a significant number of the UK population. And perhaps even of a significant number of churchgoers.

But I do not recall hearing many people raising objections at the time.

Adverts on television captured something of the spirit of the age. For example, Tesco’s 2021 Christmas TV campaign featured Father Christmas on his way to deliver presents to children while making use of a covid passport when making his way through airport security:

For some, the very notion of a covid passport was reminiscent of 1930s/1940s Germany (NB the snapshot is of a tweet that was initially flagged by Twitter/X as “sensitive content”, and later removed completely):

But in any case, in 2021 medical ethics were out. And virtue signalling was in:

Amazon even had (and at the time of writing still have) these for sale:

Churches in the covid era

In the covid hysteria, church leaders were all too keen to comply with government guidance, and to be seen to be doing what many people thought was the right thing. And in some cases they went well beyond what the government required.

In the UK in 2021, Durham Cathedral demanded “Covid passes” for Christmas services:

In the US, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, formerly led by renowned pastor and author Tim Keller, was reported as segregating congregation members based on covid vaccine status (although Keller maintained that “the restrictions were imposed by landlords”).

I suppose that the above responses might generously be construed as a form of well-intentioned virtue-signalling. But their actions were far from the only example of churches going beyond what the government actually required.

In the UK no church was asked to repeat the mantra that mask-wearing and “social distancing” were “keeping us safe” — something for which there was never any robust scientific evidence, and yet this was a repeated refrain of our church’s messaging.

It would have been in line with government guidance for church leaders to state openly from the front of church that the mask-exempt were welcome at services. Particularly if those leaders knew that that some congregation members were uncomfortable (or worse) with wearing a mask, but were doing so because they felt pressure to go along with the crowd. But no such statement was made at our church, even when it was expressly requested. During services in the winter of 2021/2022, one member of the congregation sat in the porch, outside the main body of the church, for several successive weeks.

And it would have been reasonable for church leaders to point out that the UK government guidance during Advent 2021 stated that: “there is a reasonable excuse for someone to remove a face covering when it is reasonably necessary for them to sing, for example, if they are singing as part of a choir, or during a service, rehearsal or for a performance” (emphasis added). But while the stated policy at our church was that we were following government guidance, the church leaders refused to announce this particular provision, even when it was pointed out to them.

Sadly, I doubt that our church was alone re the above.

In the words of J L Fuller that we considered in part 1 of this article, there is a strong case to be made that:

…partaking in the tyrannical covid rules [could not] be justified under the pretences of “loving your neighbour”, or “we just want to focus on Jesus” [or presumably “we just want to focus on preaching the gospel”]. [The rules were] more about appearing to love your neighbour by condoning and going along with spurious mandates: merely tokenism, groupthink and virtue signalling.

How much more might this apply to the practice of going beyond the tyrannical covid rules?

Romans 13 and covid 19 again

In the book Romans 13 and Covid 19 discussed in part 1 of this article…

J L Fuller is sympathetic to church leaders (p217):

We should show compassion for leaders. They have such a hard job on their hands and we must pray for them and support and encourage them…

While maintaining that we should:

also lovingly challenge these issues.

Righteous resistance

Fuller gives plenty of consideration to what happened in Germany in the 1930s, and quotes Karl Barth, writing in his book Church and State in 1939:

The anti-Christian State is not yet truly anti-Christian, since it limits itself to using methods of oppression which take the Church into account. What is most to fear is not open violence or persecution, but to the contrary, the temptation in which the State invites believers to contruct alongside the Church of Jesus Christ a new, better or more beautiful church — heretical, because it accommodates itself to the world or the nation. It is difficult to withstand the exterior pressure, but it is even more difficult to resist dissimulated interior lies.

Dissimulated or not, interior lies are difficult to resist. But church leaders have, explicitly or implicitly, endorsed much of the covid deception, including pushing the so-called covid vaccines.

Fuller continues (p218):

We need to remember that not all resistance is sin. There is a righteous resistance and submissive disobedience that is godly…

Pointing out that:

In the moment, it is more than likely that righteously disobedient Christians will be called the disruptive ones — even (especially?) from within the Church. This requires courage and conviction of conscience — to do good and stand against evil, even when it is unpopular and costly…

And quoting John Knox (leader of Scottish Reformation):

“resistance to tyranny is obedience to Christ”

While noting that resistance is different to rebellion (cf. 1 Samuel 15:23).

Fuller adds:

Submission to tyranny is consent to evil and disobedience to Christ. We are to submit to persecution for well-doing, not to submit to wrong-doing to avoid persecution and for comfort.

And:

We are all individually responsible to God for our actions. You do not get a pass because you were just “following orders”. Full stop.

The misapplication of Romans 13

In a chapter entitled Misapplication of Romans 13 in Tyrannical Nazi Germany, Fuller notes (p234) that:

"Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are the real notable examples of Protestants in Germany who were earnestly battling with what Romans 13 was actually saying and relating it to a Church response to the Nazi regime. The Church at large in Germany was guilty of ensuring that the foundation was prepared for Hitler. No one spoke out publicly, except Bonhoeffer, Barth and a few others. In his book “Church and State”, Barth discussed at great lengths how Romans 13 calls upon Christians to obey the rules of the State they live in, but [concluded], in effect, that the actions of Jesus himself contradicted the narrow reading of Romans 13, favoured by the Nazis.

And quotes the words of Barth (p69 of Church and State):

Christians would, in point of fact, become enemies of any State if, when the State threatens their freedom, they did not resist, or if they concealed their resistance —although this resistance would be very calm and dignified. Jesus would, in actual fact, have been an enemy of the State if He had not dared, quite calmly, to call King Herod a “fox” (Luke xiii. 32). If the State has perverted its God-given authority, it cannot be honoured better than by this criticism which is due to it in all circumstances.

Fuller contends that:

Barth thus ultimately concluded that Romans 13 does not call upon people blindly to obey the State. Quite to the contrary, according to Barth, Paul’s epistle to the Romans requires people to rise against the State when the State is the source of injustice.
It was Barth’s conclusions on this that made Bonhoeffer join the resistance to Hitler (a decision what would cause him to be arrested and later sent to a concentration camp where he was martyred). [He is one of the ten modern martyrs commemorated with a statue at Westminster Abbey.]

And, more broadly (p237) that:

The long-term goal of the Nazis was to use the power of the Evangelical Church for Hitler’s own purposes, which most people just could not see through [something that in 2021 Fuller thought was happening to churches under covid by similar oppressors].

And (p238) that:

Throughout the lifetime of the Third Reich, in tens of thousands of sermons up and down the country, pro-Nazi Protestant pastors quoted from Romans 13: “The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” Tragically, as the Nazi regime imprisoned its opponents and wrought havoc across the world, Romans 13 became one of the glues that held the Third Reich together. This scripture had the effect of preventing, or at least delaying, the emergence of more widespread resistance against Nazi policies.

In a section entitled, What We Can Learn From Nazi Germany’s Use of Romans 13, Fuller observes (p245) that:

When we look back in history at the Nazi and other tyrannical regimes, we often ask, “where were the people?!”… The lack of early and strong resistance was a major factor in allowing the Nazi tyranny to escalate and move ahead, largely unchallenged. There was also the added factor of Statist propaganda and national pride that many people went willingly along with [I couldn’t help but think of “Clap for our Carers”, an activity in which I am now ashamed that I took part on one occasion].
This led countless “normal” people”, “good citizens” to become “desk murderers” who planned and organised the Holocaust without actually taking part in killings personally. They were so brainwashed that white collar workers such as doctors, teachers and administrators went along with Nazi regime in the name of “just doing their job” and not having the insight into (or courage to stand against) the real motives and ramifications of the State regimes of the day. Similarly, clergymen were using Romans 13 to justify their apathetic response…”

It is striking that so very few doctors had the courage to push back against the covid tyranny and to stand up for basic medical ethics. Even at the time of writing, there are relatively few speaking out, even among those who are retired and who have little to lose. Though in the UK, we have been fortunate to have had a small but significant minority of courageous doctors pushing back, despite concerted opposition from the authorities. (The links in the previous sentence are to some of the most prominent. Some other notable examples can be found here.)

But it appears that Mike Fairclough has been the only headteacher to push back in a substantial way. An interview with him on the Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast can be found here (from 28:43-44:39).

Something similar might alas be said of church leaders. Though here too there have been some notable exceptions, including e.g. Rev Dr William Philip of the The Tron Church in Glasgow (interview from August 2021 here) and this church in Leyland, Lancashire:

As awareness grows of more of what was actually going on during the covid era, it will be interesting — and somewhat revealing — to see how long it takes other doctors and headteachers and church leaders to acknowledge what happened. And indeed others, not least those in politics, public health, and the mainstream media. Beware limited hangouts though.

The bystander effect and Stockholm syndrome

Fuller ends the chapter on the misapplication of Romans 13 in Nazi Germany by discussing the bystander effect (p247):

Essentially, people from inside and outside the Church were bystanders to the atrocities. The “bystander effect” is a social psychological phenomenon where a bystander is unlikely to help someone in need when there’s the presence of other people around. This bystander apathy is inversely proportional to the total number of bystanders… In the case of governmental tyranny, the bystander effect creates a “spiral of silence” — if no-one speaks out, it becomes harder and harder for anyone to speak out. Doing nothing becomes tacit approval.

And adds that…

In the same manner, under the covid regulations, a morally corrupt society is being formed; humans in our societies are lacking the fortitude to help and stand up to wrong.

…before discussing Stockholm syndrome:

One of the major factors in people not speaking up is Stockholm syndrome — a condition in which people under rule by coercion or tyranny will often develop an attachment to the oppressors, called “trauma bonding”, where a sense of loyalty or even a perverse love occurs — kind of like an abused wife. Why? Because they see no other option and because on a subconscious level, the whole surreal world they are no living in makes no sense at all unless their rulers are doing the right thing. Therefore, their leaders must be right, they have to be right. All in all, many people are subconsciously asking this question: “Would I rather wake up and therefore see the mass insanity all around me, or would I prefer to stay asleep and follow orders and pretend that this is the best course of action?” They choose the second option and take part in a big social “emperor’s new clothes” contract to go along with it. That also explains why people can get very angry if you question the official narrative. Sadly, genuine Christians are not exempt from this…

The latter part of the above certainly fits with my own experience. See also what happens about half way through this extraordinary two-minute clip.

Perhaps fittingly, Fuller ends the chapter with a quote from Bonhoeffer:

I am reminded of this sentiment:

And these words of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn:

The bigger picture

I do share J L Fuller’s sentiments (quoted earlier) re compassion for church leaders. But it is surely important that lies and deception are challenged.

I am sympathetic too to the need for church leaders to focus on preaching the gospel. But it is surely vitally important that churches in no way endorse lies and deception, either explicitly or implicitly. And that their leaders are quick to acknowledge where mistakes have been made. And it is surely in the interests of the proclamation of the gospel of truth that this happens sooner rather than later — hence this post:

[At the time of putting out this post I have had no reply at all in relation to this from the leaders at the church I attend.]

Moreover, is there not a strong case to be made that acknowledging the covid lies and deception would actually be beneficial for gospel ministry?

For example, I was particularly struck by how Dr Clare Craig, Co-Chair of HART and author of Expired: Covid the untold story, described how what happened during the covid era led her to become a Christian.

She concludes:

Humans have made a mess of things and I don’t think humans can put this right alone. We have a Saviour in Jesus. We need God’s help. And more and more people are coming to him, including me.

I wonder how many testimonies like this we will eventually see. I suspect that there could be lots more if only church leaders were willing to speak out even in a low-key way in relation to the covid lies and deception.

For reference, here is the outline structure of this post, i.e. part 2 of the whole article, with links: