The COVID-19 rabblerousers are still agitating
The fact that many agitators are still promoting schism within the body of Christ is both shameful and tragic.
A couple weeks ago, I rebuked the "cult of safety" surrounding COVID-19. It was a necessary rebuke of this cult, because they are still stuck in the worst paranoid days of April and May 2020, and are still treating the slightest deviation from their theology as damnable blasphemy and heresy. I stand by every word of that post.
Much worse, though, are the Christian agitators and rabblerousers who are still angry and bitter at the "compromises" churches made during the lockdowns. Any church who submitted to government mask mandates is "compromised" and any church that held online services betrayed the Gospel, even if they opened as soon as was legally possible. There is absolutely no grace or humility in their denunciations of fellow brothers in Christ and demands for "accountability."
There were certainly mistakes made in COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures, and we do not need to re-litigate all of that here. But can we have enough love for our brothers in Christ that we recognize that these decisions - even if hindsight proves them wrong - were made through prayerful consideration, love for the most vulnerable people in their congregations and a genuine commitment to honor the civil authorities commanded in Romans 13? There is also a major difference between a church "taking a strong stand for masking" and submitting to the civil magistrate's lawful orders for masking in public places. These are not the same thing.
Yes, people can point to this particular action or that particular church as acting sinfully and/or without faith. The problem with that is we are missing the forest for the trees. There are plenty of churches - including churches that have long been faithful in defending Christian doctrines hated by our world today - who implemented measures that embittered the agitators not out of fear or faithlessness, but out of prayerful consideration, study of Scripture and love for their neighbors. The fact that many agitators are still promoting schism within the body of Christ is both shameful and tragic. We are supposed to be a spiritual family!
It is time to move on, and abandon this demand for "accountability" across all of Christendom, which sounds a lot more like payback than genuine desire for repentance and reconciliation. This does not mean what we cannot rebuke specific acts of faithlessness by specific churches and church leaders, but we need to be a lot more graceful and humble than we have been. Forgiveness is the heart of the Gospel, yet this is sadly absent from many agitators who are demanding "accountability" three years after the end of the pandemic.