Bear with Me

 

  “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Eph 3:20

 

  It was a hard day yesterday. Conversations became heated and angry. There was much discussion on the prevalent use of the Nazi symbol in the Ottawa protest. The media has leapt on this and used it to blanket the protesters as racist, white supremists, further dividing Canadian against Canadian.

  Bear with me, dear readers, and have patience with where I am going with this.

  The very first flag I saw with this infamous symbol on it was a large, upside down Canadian flag emblazoned with the swastika dead centre, over the crimson maple leaf. I was horrified. In discussions with others, I began to realize the greatest problem is that the significance has gotten muddied. What exactly is this defaced symbol of national pride trying to say?

  I learned many years ago in Girl Guides an upside down flag is a symbol of distress. It’s an SOS. It’s a cry for help. It’s also been used in this, and other protests, as a criticism against the government for a plethora of reasons.

  The swastika…yah...Hitler’s symbol represented one of the most nefarious and successful political agendas on the planet. He managed to lead a democracy, bands playing, flags waving, into a dictatorship capable of genocide. How?

  In the name of public welfare, he set up a system of discrimination. He used newspaper articles to plant seeds of hate and suspicion in the name of national pride. He then began making laws, small at first but eventually requiring Jewish people to be identified. Law allowed their property to be seized. Laws defined where they could live, where they could go. Then the trains pulled in.

  Oh, God, forgive us for the great evil we do to each other.

  We’ve all seen images of the gold, Star-of David, sewn on the coats of adults and children. Through the use of propaganda and misinformation, Hitler was able to nearly wipe out an entire population with very little resistance. In fact, he ended up being supported in this although; the threat of death is also a great motivator to silence any objections. (God bless the descendants of those who did resist and aid the Jewish people who managed to escape.) Hitler’s horrific legacy is the death of 6,000,000, once free, men, women and children: their very lives taken from them one tiny bit at a time.

  (Bear with me, dear reader, this is going somewhere.) Eighty years later, we have vaccine passports and are being bombarded by a constant, public vilification of people who, for numerous reasons, are not vaccinated. Politicians wanted to start fining those who weren’t, who required hospitalization after contracting Covid. Thankfully, this was never enforced because of the dangerous precedence such an act would set. Lifestyle choices could have quickly followed suit. 

  Do I even think that what the Jewish people suffered is even remotely the same as what all of us have gone through during Covid? Not at all. The grim photos of the starved and skeletal men, women and mass graves of Auschwitz are permanently seared into my mind and soul. How did it happen? How did things get so bad? How did we, humanity, let this happen?

  We have a leader who has said Canada will see a 100% vaccination rate. Many people cannot get it due to health reasons yet they are lumped freely into the “fringe minority” (to quote this same leader) “people who don’t care about the health of others.” We have been bombarded daily for months with this idea through the media. 

  The concept of “not caring” is being repeated by anyone I speak with about their ideas around vaccination. Proof that the message is not only working, but it’s believed!!

  Nothing could be further from the truth.

  Suspicion, prejudice, and hatred are being slowly fostered and encouraged to grow. To what ends? I have no idea. I am only commenting on what I see and hear.

  This is the horrible similarity between the events leading up WWII and now. It’s how it all started in the first place. Seeds were planted long before the darkest reaping in the history of mankind could ever take place.

  I am not saying our Prime Minister is Hitler re-born or a Nazi. And yes, there were full blown Nazi flags displayed at the convoy amongst many other flags. God forgive those who would willingly manufacture such a horrible thing, never mind fly them with pride. (www.jurist.org has produced an excellent article exploring the different flags at the protest and their meaning. It is unsettling.)

  The truckers posted a large reward for anyone who could identify one of these individuals because his mere presence undermined their purpose: to end the vaccine mandates and the restrictions on our rights and freedoms. (I don’t know if there were others pointed out in this manner.)

  I am not saying that all the protesters were this altruistic. Their were cries of "Overthrow the Government!" There were many reports of people being harassed for numerous reasons like wearing a mask or because of colour. This is not and was not acceptable. I hope these situations are fully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. That’s how the law is supposed to work, to defend and protect citizens and to provide the means for those who break our laws to be held accountable, truckers included. I pray God changes their hearts.

  Mr. Trudeau withdrew the Federal Emergencies Act yesterday before the Senate’s ratifying vote (the vote used to pass or stop a proposed law from becoming law.) Judging from the debate it would have been overturned anyways. Our Prime Minister has publicly expressed a desire to make some of the far reaching powers in the Act into laws. Once such possibility is the right to freeze bank accounts without due process. The way Parliament is stacked, this first step towards the ability to infringe on Canadian rights and freedoms is a very real possibility.

  I pray for our Senate who has the power to ratify or overturn an attempt to invoke such laws. I also pray for wisdom in all who lead this country, especially our Prime Minister! Thank God I live in a country with these checks and balances in place.

  I believe the repeated use of the swastika on upside down Canadian flags at the Ottawa protest was meant to make a statement far removed from supporting white supremacy but then, nobody asked their bearers about what they were trying to say. If they did, these statements never appeared in the news or on social media.

  There are always two sides to a story.

  Anything…ANYTHING!!!!...that encourages fear, bigotry and blind hatred needs to be stopped be it a Nazi flag waving protester or “news” reports that seek to inflame, divide and foster prejudice of any kind.

  To see my brothers and sisters in Christ fighting over what’s going on is deeply troubling. Seeing Christians publicly condemning others and to witness God’s children nurture and embrace messages of fear and hate…Oh, God…something is going terribly wrong.

  Lord, hear my cry! Help us weigh what we say and think and do on the scales of Your heart. Forgive me when I have failed to do this. Let my mouth be guarded, my thoughts tested. Let my heart be filled with the love that surpasses all understanding. More than anything, let me be a bearer and nurturer of the most beautiful things on earth: love, peace, reconciliation and grace. In Jesus' name I pray.