Correspondence With a Friend

(From _____)

         Hope you folks are doing well. I need to share something with you. This is not advice or any thing of the sort. This is just FYI. This has to do with the right to do as you choose movement. I'm all for opening things back up and stopping the lock down. I'm hoping to give a different perspective on why the government is doing what they are doing. 

What I'm about to tell you has to do with my experience in the medical field. Both of us have been exposed multiple times. _____ just got a call from HR, that she had been exposed again. (Around 20 times) Woodburn and Silverton are the hottest spots in Oregon. There is a very high population of Russians around, with several Orthodox churches. From personal experience, this is where most of the positive Covids are coming from. They are very traditional and don't like giving up the way they do things. Most people are trying their very best to be safe. Again, this is just to give you a perspective of what can happen when safety is not observed and one of the reasons why the government is coming down hard on churches. 

There is an evangelical church in Salem they had several positive and few of them died. The perception of the unchurched world has a great impact on government policies.

All our love ……. 

(Response)

Good morning Brother

In my opinion, and I understand it is just an opinion, this whole virus has blown way out of proportion and is the result of a trend toward increasing social distancing that I have observed almost my whole ministry, certainly my whole ministry in Puyallup. People fear unreasonably people, including their germs. I sort of think we deserve to have our fears manipulated. I think it might be one of the things God is judging us for at this time. I am praying for God to revive His people.

It is still only my opinion but I do not believe the way to beat the virus, no matter how threatening it might have been (more and more doctors are confirming that it is no more threatening than the flu) is to face it and not flee from it. The very most that should have been done is to take extra precautions with our elderly and the compromised. Even then the focus should have been personal responsibility rather than government intervention.

Again, my opinion but the government has done what governments do best; it has applied its interventions randomly and irrationally based on political leanings and bad science.

All of that said, I do understand why they would be concerned about churches. A church is by nature a petri dish. We come from all backgrounds, we gather closely and regularly we encourage our members to be out among the people to be a witness, and we resist government interference in our activities.

I am in favor of exhausting all our legal means to redress our grievances before any organized civil disobedience is taken up. But I do believe our grievances are real and the government acted oppressively.

Much love.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (still under confinement)