Christians around the world were stunned by the reaction of much of the Church to the unhinged, authoritarian response of governments around the world to Covid-19 and the subsequent global medical experiment performed on millions of people. Whilst churches were forced to shut for the longest period in history, businesses were made to close for no good reason, and people were mandated to cover the most visible expression of the Image of God — their faces — with useless, dehumanising bits of cloth, most of the Church was at best silent. When an experimental gene therapy product which can never complete its clinical trials was mandated at the cost of people’s jobs, reputations and livelihoods, most of the Church was at best silent. When that medical experiment was demonstrably seen to be injuring or killing huge numbers of people across the globe, most of the Church was at best silent.

Too many Christians assumed that the state had both a medical and a moral right to act as it did. On the first point, it was clear from the outset that those measures and restrictions were both unscientific and unnecessary, yet few in the church were willing to ask the questions that should have been asked. On the second point, the result was that the state took on an authority that it does not possess to regulate what can and can’t be done in worship, with much of the church apparently happy to go along with this.

That the church responded in this way is troubling enough; that few lessons have been learned — much less repentance — is even more concerning. However, wherever there is mass conformity to totalitarianism, there will always be some who emerge to challenge it, rebuke it, and shine a light in the darkness. It thrills us to report that such a statement has now emerged.