Keeping Liquor & Pot Stores Open While Closing Churches Says Something Very Disturbing About Our Society

What gives politicians the right to say alcohol and marijuana are ‘essential’ but faith gatherings aren’t?

There has been a lot of hypocrisy and insanity from our politicians during this past year.

Among the most disturbing however was something that took place in almost every Canadian jurisdiction:

Alcohol & marijuana stores remaining open, while churches and other faith gathering locations were shuttered.

The argument made for this was that alcohol and marijuana stores were ‘essential,’ and that people would end up in the hospital if they couldn’t get access to them – particularly alcohol.

First of all, that seems to be an admission that we are already a deeply troubled society, if we need to keep liquor stores open to feed unhealthy dependence on a substance.

Second, it is very disturbing that alcohol and marijuana are considered essential but faith gatherings are not.

Personally, I’m not someone who often attends church, so the restrictions on religious gatherings didn’t impact my own life. However, that isn’t the point here.

We can’t just defend the freedoms we personally use, because the whole concept of freedom is in defending the rights of others to make their own choices and decisions.

For many Canadians, being able to gather at a church, or a temple, or a mosque, is an essential part of everyday life, and the government shouldn’t have the right to tell people otherwise.

But beyond all of this, there is the question of what kind of society we have become.

If alcohol and marijuana are seen as essential, but faith gatherings are not, what exactly is going on here?

What do we really worship?

What really provides meaning in our lives?

And is this really about the fact that the government can make money from alcohol and marijuana, but not from religious faith?

Does our society worship government power and giving our money to politicians as they feed into our dependencies?

How is this possible?

Imagine that someone in late 2019 someone had told you that in 2020 and 2021 liquor stores and pot stores would be open, but masses of police would be surrounding churches, putting up fences, and threatening arrest and punishment for those who tried to hold services?

In Manitoba, authorities even shut down services where people socially distanced in their cars, all while people could file into liquor marts and pot stores day after day after day.

Many ‘conservative’ politicians enabled this

In Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario, we saw examples of liquor and pot stores being kept open, while aggressive state power, police, and threats were used to shut down religious services.

Those provinces are all governed by parties that call themselves ‘conservatives,’ with caucuses made up of many MLA’s/MPP’s who represent rural areas where a large portion of their constituents are quite religious.

Unfortunately, those parties often abandoned their principles, or perhaps a better way to say it is they showed their true principles:

The worship of government power and government revenue over the rights of Canadians to worship freely.

Following the science?

Now, some will respond to this and say, “this was all about reducing large gatherings, they were following the science by shutting down religious gatherings!”

But was the science being followed when the borders weren’t shut, allowing first the virus, and then variants to seep into the country?

Was the science being followed when the authorities allowed BLM rallies after telling everyone to stay inside and avoid large gatherings (even outdoors)?

Was the science being followed when the authorities ‘made an exception’ for those rallies and claimed ‘racism was as big a threat as the virus?’

Was the science being followed when top health officials and ‘experts’ repeatedly said the virus was ‘a low-risk’ to Canada?

Was the science being followed when Patty Hajdu dismissed the benefit of Vitamin D on the immune system?

Was the science being followed when top officials completely ignored the second biggest risk factor for negative virus outcomes – obesity – and instead shut down gyms and discouraged outdoor activity?

And was the science being followed when governments failed to protect the most vulnerable, shutting down much of society rather than concentrating their efforts on seniors care homes – where the virus ripped through and caused a large proportion of deaths?

The fact is, we haven’t been ‘following the science’ (which constantly changes as science does with new discoveries), we’ve instead been following the whims of incompetent politicians, incompetent government officials, and we’ve been following political correctness.

Rather than reflecting actual policy or reality, ‘following the science’ has been used as a cudgel to intimidate and suppress groups that politicians and the media deem as lacking public support, making them easy targets of state-backed power.

Defending the rights of religious Canadians – particularly rural conservative Christians – isn’t seen as ‘woke’ or ‘progressive,’ so that made for an easy target for politicians – including many ‘conservative’ politicians – who are constantly chasing the praise of the establishment press.

So, I’m not saying they should have shut alcohol and pot stores as well as churches. Instead, they shouldn’t have shut any of them.

Rights have been politicized

The danger of this moment goes beyond the hypocrisy.

The politicization of our rights – with how ‘popular’ or ‘woke’ a group is determining how many rights they actually get to possess or are ‘allowed’ by politicians – represents a direct rejection of how our society is supposed to work.

Combined with the increasingly hollow and meaningless focus of our society (manifest in the mental health crisis and rising drug addiction), and our declining physical health, this all points to a society that has become profoundly sick, and is cursed with leaders who only seem able to deepen the sickness.

In the past year, our society has shown what it truly worships and values, and it’s no wonder that the worship of government power and politicized rights is leading to more and more people being depressed and divided.

This will continue to worsen, until Canadians recover our courage, and our willingness to stand up against corrupt politicians and stand up for the freedom of all Canadians – especially for those with whom we disagree.

If we don’t find the strength to do this, we will deserve the consequences of allowing our society and our freedom to whither away.

Spencer Fernando

Photo – YouTube

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