Rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s seemed so much simpler when it was just a question of paying the emperor’s tax.
The modern-day relationship between church and state has been much more complicated, especially during the last 22 months, when the two parties have been like awkward dance partners, trying to figure out the moves while not stepping on each other’s toes.
Initially they seemed to have found the right stride, with faith communities content to let the government lead since it had the responsibility of protecting the citizens of B.C. The faith community tried to keep up, allowing provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix the manoeuvring room they needed.
It was functional, if ungainly, for a few months. Where other provinces and faith communities were more or less estranged from each other, B.C government officials and faith leaders maintained a polite dialogue.
It wasn’t perfect. The government snubbed houses of worship for a time, treating them as something less than restaurants and pubs, but the relationship seems to have been patched up and a mutual understanding reached.
Then enter the time of the vaccine mandate, and we can only hope the truce that’s been arrived at in B.C. continues. Things aren’t going so well in other provinces.
Last month the New Brunswick government came as close as possible to imposing vaccine mandates on churches without actually doing it. One bishop, perhaps trying to be helpful, or anticipating the next step, or simply misunderstanding the rules, decided to implement a vaccine mandate on his own.
Within days he had backtracked and joined the other N.B. bishops in encouraging, but not requiring vaccinations.
But it turns out he had only beat the government to the punch by a few weeks. The province has now placed a hybrid mandate on houses of worship, giving privileges to churches that enforce vaccination at the door compared with unclean churches, who will still have to distance, not sing, and record names of all attendees and contact information by row or have a consistent assigned seating plan for contact tracing.
Consider how alarming that is. Government is not just imposing medical requirements on churches, it’s trying to tempt churches to comply with enticements.
Oddly, New Brunswick is requiring unvaxed parishes to “Prevent anyone displaying COVID-19 symptoms or who has been instructed to self-isolate from entering” the building, as though that’s not something any church would do. Another peculiarity is that everyone must be masked, vaxed church or unvaxed church.
The church hybrid method seems to be catching on. Newfoundland and Labrador also said faith groups could either require vaccinations or limit attendance to 50 per cent capacity with masks and social distancing.
Manitoba also caught on to the carrot and stick approach, limiting faith-based gatherings to 25 people or 33 per cent capacity unless vaccine requirements are enforced.
So often during the past two years government measures seem to have been based more on a desperate attempt to do something, anything, especially if everyone else is doing it, than in a more reasoned approach justified by data.
This despite many unanswered questions about the effectiveness of the vaccines and other measures, the emphasis on case numbers, and the arbitrary nature of the restrictions.
In other provinces, like New Brunswick, Caesar is clearly overstepping his boundaries, sending out centurions to inspect 63 houses of worship on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
We can be grateful things haven’t reached that point here. Let’s pray they continue.