Reflections on Remembrance Sunday
Properly honouring those who have fought for our freedom
[In November 2023 I wrote a letter to the leaders of my local church in the context of my experience at the then-recent Remembrance Sunday service. I have reproduced a version of it below — somewhat updated, and with some added links and footnotes — a month in advance of this year’s Remembrance Sunday in the hope that it will prove useful for church leaders considering what to say at this year’s services.]
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
Remembrance Sunday reminds me of my mother’s father. Grandad fought — and was wounded — in World War II. I remember him showing me the shrapnel that was removed from his leg. He was posthumously awarded the Arctic Star. Along with many others, he risked his life to bring future generations — i.e. us — freedom from tyranny.
In 2020, western governments, apparently acting in lockstep,1 led the way in removing many of their citizens’ fundamental freedoms under the pretext of a “deadly virus” whose infection fatality rate at the time was known to be comparable to a bad flu. The risks were deliberately exaggerated, safe and effective treatments were sabotaged,2 and we were then essentially told in 2021 that we could only have basic freedoms back3 when enough people had taken hastily-developed injections, in some cases with the threat of losing their job if they did not comply. Meanwhile, some of the most vulnerable in society — the elderly, the poor, and children among them — were suffering in terrible ways, often out of sight.
In and of itself, the above seemed to me self-evidently tyrannical.4 And as far as I could see, there was little or nothing benevolent in what was happening.5 I found it odd that so few people raised objections. And I still do. What happened to basic medical ethics? Why have so few Christians spoken up for those that God particularly cares about, and especially for children? And why have church leaders, including those at our church, been complicit in pushing a narrative that is, to anyone thinking carefully about the issues, plainly based on lies?
It is not yet widely appreciated just how extensively we have been deceived, how malevolent and sophisticated the behavioural psychology deployed during the covid era was, and how close we came in 2021 to a truly dystopian outcome: a world in which people would have to submit to repeated “booster” injections in order to participate in normal everyday life.6
Some people, including me in a relatively small way, had the courage to speak out. And I did so not least with a view to safeguarding the church’s reputation for speaking the truth. But those raising concerns have largely been ignored, sometimes derided, or worse.7 In my case, a member of my family was approached behind my back by people at church — who I guess would describe themselves as my brothers and sisters in Christ — raising questions about my mental health.
But few seem interested in even considering the possibility that much is explained by the fact that I realised earlier than most what was actually going on, found it (understandably) perturbing,8 and had the moral courage to speak out. Indeed most of those who raised questions about my sanity behind my back seem not to want to speak to me about the matter.
It was in the context of the above that, when I heard it said on Remembrance Sunday that “we honour those who have fought for freedom” — as though the past few years had not happened — I found it upsetting, irrespective of the intention behind those words. And I thought it best to leave the building.
As I left, I said to the latecomers in the church porch that it was the hypocrisy that had really got to me. I remarked too, on the spur of the moment, that in contrast to my grandfather who had fought for our freedom, our church congregation had seemed willing to throw much of it away. And that no-one, i.e. no-one speaking at the front of church, seems willing to acknowledge that.
For the record, my primary motivation in speaking out, like many who share my concerns — including others in our own congregation — is to protect hard-won freedoms for our children and grandchildren. Whereas my grandfather risked his life, I have merely risked my reputation. And my courage in doing so, such as it is, pales into insignificance compared to those who fought in World War II. But the aim is much the same: to bring future generations freedom from tyranny.
The threat of tyranny in the name of “keeping people safe” has not gone away. But in any case, should not speaking up to remind people about the assault on our freedoms in the 2020s now be an integral part of honouring the sacrifices of those who have fought so bravely for freedom in the past?
Dear Church Leaders articles (some of which can also be found on Unexpected Turns)
The Big Reveal: Christianity carefully considered
Which reminds me of p18 of this 2010 document (archived here) which currently appears to be unavailable via this Rockefeller webpage
And of course the notion of “15 million jabs to freedom” was a deception reminiscent of “3 weeks to flatten the curve”
To the point where there were massive protests around the world, including the one in London featured in this six-minute film (not that you’d have seen it on mainstream media TV news):
For example, I was aware that [i] most people definitely did not need the injections, especially if they had had covid, [ii] the injections weren’t ever going to help anyone very much, [iii] they were very different from regular vaccines, [iv] they plainly had no long-term safety data, and [v] there were multiple sound scientific reasons for thinking that they might prove to be very harmful in any of various ways, especially in the longer term. And yet they were being pushed on children and pregnant women. (The latter is still happening in the UK.) Such an egregious violation of medical ethics is unprecedented in its scale.
It is something of an understatement to say that the so-called covid vaccines were never going to improve people’s health. Indeed it may reasonably be argued that the injections were deliberately harmful and ultimately somewhat life-shortening, with one possible motive behind that being to reduce the burden of pension liabilities on an economic system facing potential collapse. This is such a dark prospect that most people (understandably) recoil from it. But it pains me that most Christians — although they would readily acknowledge that Satan is the god of this age, and that his followers masquerade as servants of righteousness — seemed (and still seem) unable to see more of what was actually going on.
I could link to plenty of other stories here, particularly in relation to doctors being persecuted by medical authorities all over the world (including the UK); this recent suicide of a Zimbabwean doctor is a particularly tragic example
Not least given that other people seemed blind to what was actually happening