Corona virus and Abortion bill

Monday, March 16, 2020

Written by Alan Vink

Categories: Gospel and Culture

Comments: 0

gospel&culture

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink

Monday 16th March 2020

Coronavirus.

A Short Summary of the facts. Sources are the World Health Organisation (WHO) and NZ’s Health Ministry.

What is it? The Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

The illness or disease you get if infected is called Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which is a new strain of illness that was discovered in 2019 and has not been previously identified in humans.

Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.

How Contagious is it? Very contagious. That’s why countries are taking strident action, New Zealand included. It is to try and contain the spread of the virus.

What is a pandemic? A pandemic describes an infectious disease where we see significant and ongoing person-to-person spread in multiple countries around the world at the same time.

The last time a pandemic occurred was in 2009 with swine flu, which experts think killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Pandemics are more likely if a virus is brand new, able to infect people easily and can spread from person-to-person in an efficient and sustained way.

Coronavirus appears to tick all of those boxes.

With no vaccine or treatment that can prevent it yet, containing its spread is vital.

My Response. I heard from a number of my pastor friends in Hamilton that attendances at church services were down yesterday and in some cases hugely so. The church I attend was trialling video etc to go online in the event of churches being closed this week which seems likely. I know of a number of others doing likewise.

This is a unfolding situation by the hour. As at this morning NZ has eight confirmed cases. The possibility of a ‘outbreak’ is very real. That said, the natural fear surrounding this is also very real. I think one of our challenges as Pastors going forward is to be well informed from reliable sources meaning that we work hard at facing reality, yet on the other hand ministering both hope and faith to our people especially those who show signs of being extremely fearful. Please be careful of ‘conspiracy theories’ that are already circulating and be ever so careful about non-science people making predictions. In my opinion a really good, reliable and independent micro-biologist and expert in NZ is Dr Siouxsie Wiles. Dr Wiles is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Auckland University.

Finally for now, let me connect you to the best (short) piece of writing on this subject by a Christian Minister that I have come across. It’s written by J John and titled, ‘Living Under The Shadow’. I have printed this blog off and will make sure that I apply it’s 3s wisdom namely that of, sanity, stability and serenity in the following days and months.

Abortion Legislation Bill

This Bill is now at the 5th (of 7) stages of the parliamentary process, namely the ‘Committee of the Whole House’. The 6th stage is the Third Reading and if it passes then, all that is needed is the 7th Stage namely The Royal Assent. The 3rd Reading (and voting) is scheduled for either Wednesday or Thursday this week. We should now for sure later today when the ‘Order Paper’ comes out.

The outpouring of displeasure and outrage from churches last week from all around NZ was stunning quite frankly. To be honest I haven’t seen such a wide spread response from the Christian community on any issue in my life time. This is VERY encouraging and hopefully lays the ground work for a more united voice on public issues (social, moral and cultural) going forward.

Yes it is time to speak up and to speak out. If we can continue to do so with ONE VOICE then all the more powerful our voice will be.

And finally for now. Here’s a novel idea. Given the Coronavirus challenge NZ faces at present, we could pray that Parliament is suspended for a month or so. If it was it would give the ‘pro-life’ movement (including Churches) more time to do our work of explaining, lobbying and praying etc.

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.

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