Lockdowns in Alberta

In a recent press briefing, Alberta’s health minister, Deena Hinshaw, baldly stated that the 16 MLA’s who opposed Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s lockdown order must not believe that the virus was a real threat. In an unbelievable piece of maternalistic tripe, Hinshaw further suggested that many Albertan’s were not abiding by the new lock-down mandate because they themselves had not personally suffered from the virus. Generally speaking, anyone who opposes the actions taken by the province are depicted as “conspiracy theorists”.

I went to Gracelife Church today and took some photographs of those who gathered to protest the fencing off of the church. Based on what I overheard, and the conversations I had with those who attended the demonstration, people are worried about government spending and the precarious state of small businesses in the province. “There will be nothing left for our children,” was a common refrain. People also expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of lock-downs (our third and last one…) and the wearing of masks (no one was wearing one). I spoke with one lady (this was actually this past Friday while standing in line to get into Lee Valley) who was disgusted that children were being forced to wear masks in schools and while playing sports. No doubt there are many (myself included) who feel the same way about masks in churches, but I think the real concern right now is with the lock-downs and the economic impact it is having on nearly everyone in the province.

There is nothing unreasonable about these concerns. It is our lawmakers who should be fending off questions of sanity… but the gaslighting continues. Of course, there is another layer of fear and concern about what forces are at work behind the scenes exploiting this crisis to gain power. Some of this is necessarily speculative and sometimes unwise, but none of those sentiments (many of which are also valid) were expressed today at the demonstration at Gracelife. There was an impromptu worship service in front of the hastily erected fence around the church where a loudspeaker and a mike circulated freely in the crowd. It could have been a train wreck but not a single person who spoke said anything that could be construed as a conspiracy theory.

I would like to come back to the press conference conducted by our health minister, Deena Hinshaw, this past Friday. None of the journalists in attendance posed a serious question during the Q & A session. But there are many questions that need to be answered by our health minister and premier. What happens when the bid fall out from beneath our bond market due to excessive debt and rising inflation (or cascading defaults)? Are the policies of our government destroying the incentive to work and innovate? What evidence is there for the effectiveness of lock-downs over the long term? How many businesses will fail due to forced closures? Having fostered a climate of fear and hysteria, and having presented the vaccinations as our salvation, how will you restore normalcy if the vaccinations prove ineffective? Should the government be coercing people to receive an improperly tested vaccine? Are lawmakers willing to accept the liability that may ensue? Why has there been so little focus on effective therapies? Why wasn’t the Alberta Pilot Program (which must have cost huge sums of taxpayer money to set up) allowed to work? Why are critics of government policies being de-platformed, harassed, and labelled “conspiracy theorists”? Why did the RCMP close a church and cordon it off with an armed guard while the matter was still being litigated in court and there were no active cases in the church? What happened to the provincial police force?

These questions, and many more besides, are being asked by people in this province in increasing numbers. I think we will be getting some answers in the months ahead.

Mary, the Impractical Woman

El-Azariya is the Arabic name for Bethany. It means “The Place of Lazarus.” The school I attended in Jerusalem was not more than a few hundred meters from Bethany, but since El-Azariya is in the West Bank, one has to take a circuitous route to get there. I had never visited the place until a few years ago, when I took an Arab bus to the village. I was disappointed to discover that the church that marked the grave of Lazarus appeared to be closed to visitors. I tried knocking on the door of the church courtyard until finally a nun appeared and graciously escorted me inside. She did not speak English but she was very kind and showed me to a place where I could sit and cool down. Eventually, another nun came and informed me that I was in a convent and that the church was further down the road!

The convent that I visited during my first visit to Bethany (I think it is more properly referred to as an abbey) was founded by Queen Melisende (1105-1161 AD), a remarkable woman who ruled Jerusalem for 30 years. She was born in Edessa to Morphia, an Armenian woman, and Baldwin, a Frankish knight. Melisende’s son, Amalric, had a daughter named Sibylla, who was raised in the same abbey founded by her grandmother. She too was destined to become a queen of Jerusalem. Her life has become the subject of many works of fiction, the most recent of which is the movie, “The Kingdom of Heaven.” The Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem had an unusual number of queens since women had a longer lifespan than men in the besieged kingdom. Their husbands, having fallen in battle, bequeathed their estates to their wives.

But of course, the most famous residents of Bethany are Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Of the three, Mary is accorded a special place of honor. When Martha expressed frustration that Mary remained seated listening to the teaching of Christ while she did all the serving, Jesus responded that “only one thing is necessary” and Mary “has chosen the better part.” When Jesus returned to Bethany in response to the news of Lazarus’ death, Mary did not rush to meet Jesus like her sister Martha, nor did she engage Jesus in a dialogue about the resurrection of the dead, she simply stated that if Jesus had been there, her brother would not have died. These are the only recorded words of Mary in the Gospels. Jesus’ reaction to Mary is not that of a philosopher or a teacher but of a friend. “Jesus wept.”

Later in the gospel we find Mary pouring expensive myrrh on Jesus feet and wiping them with her hair. Judas hypocritically protested that the myrrh could have been sold and the money given to the poor. He was a calculator, a philanthropist, a public relations manager, a thoroughly modern man, and Mary was none of these things. She was impractical. Her actions had no perceivable utility. Her life stands as a repudiation of all rational systems of ethics. “Do your duty!” says Kant. But Kant’s “categorical imperative” doesn’t work. We are still “anxious and troubled by many things.” But only one thing is necessary. We need redemption, the forgiveness of sin. And Mary, I think, understood that better than anyone else.