Your right to life is not given to you by the state (Exodus 20:13, life by definition includes livelihood, Deut. 24:6). Your right to leave (or stay in) your home is not given to you by the state. Only slaves wait for permission to earn a living, that they might feed their family. Only slaves ask permission to come and go from their homes and places of worship.
Your right to life, liberty and worship are secured by a power much higher than any government. These rights are given to us by God; nobody can take them. They can only steal them. Therefore: The state only possesses the power to quarantine the sick (Lev. 13). The state may not quarantine the healthy nor destroy livelihoods.
Every inch of liberty you allow the state to steal forges the chains that will enslave your children and grandchildren. Pause and consider this.
There is much talk of loving future generations. There is much talk of loving neighbors. It is not loving to enslave people to the state. It is not loving to destroy livelihoods. This slavish obedience to the shut-down is nothing but hateful cowardice. (Rev. 21:8)
Our nation has had good, prosperous times. Good times make weak men, men who cover cowardice with wide-eyed naivete or self-righteous moral indignation–indignation used to condemn the very people who are courageous enough to fight the state’s unlawful seizure of power.
We who love (Romans 13:10) stand for liberty because, in Christ, we know the strict limits of state power. We are not asking permission, we already have it. Washington is open for the brave and the free. For we, the free (John 8:36), must obey God, not men (Acts 5:29).
Rachelle Merle
Port Townsend
