Freedom comes with a price.
To live in a free society one must be prepared to relinquish some of your personal rights. Our governments pass laws designed to benefit the majority. You may not personally approve of the law, but it is the law and it must be obeyed. If individuals decide that they will only obey those laws that they like or approve, the end result is chaos.
Our current emergency health laws are designed to protect our most vulnerable citizens, yet many people are refusing to wear a mask in public, practice social distancing or limit the size of gatherings because they disagree with the law. The result is increased COVID infection rates, an overloaded health system and skyrocketing costs both for health care and the subsidies to help those businesses and individuals most affected by the lockdowns.
The increased infections and tragic deaths have placed a crushing burden on health-care services and personnel. That, along with the continued cost of government assistance packages, is unsustainable, yet those who refuse to obey the law seem indifferent to the suffering of others or these costs which will burden us for years to come. Many cite the charter of rights as their excuse for ignoring the laws.
Unfortunately, some Christians have also cited the charter as grounds for ignoring the law. As a born again Christian, I am dismayed by this attitude. Our charter rights do not replace God’s instructions to Christians as set down by Paul in Romans 13, which in summary state, obey the government in all things because all government is ordained by God.
Each of us needs to recognize that in times of great peril our personal rights take second place to the well-being of the rest of society.
Raym Forbes
Victoria
