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Christians are called to be ‘set apart’ for God and to separate themselves from sin and worldliness. But segregation – the kind being practiced in today’s society against the unvaccinated – is completely unbiblical. Churches and Christian businesses should know better.

Should churches and Christian businesses segregate? It depends on what sort of segregation we are discussing. Some segregation is entirely proper and biblical.

A simple definition of segregate is “set apart from each other; isolated or divided”. In many cases, this is no problem for Christians. The very words “saint”, “sanctification” and “holiness” all have as their root the notion of being set apart. Believers are set apart for God and his use, and we are set apart from the world. As Paul put it in 2 Timothy 2:21,

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonourable, he will be a vessel for honourable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Paul himself was “set apart for the gospel of God”, as he says in Romans 1:1. Believers are to be separated from the world and the world system in various ways. As we read in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

When Churches Should Practice ‘Segregation’

So individual believers can and should be separate and should segregate at times. But what about churches? Is it right for them to segregate? Again, it depends.

Consider the issue of church membership: here, the church must segregate. Church membership is only for actual Christians. They are in a covenant relationship with God and others in a local body of believers. Church discipline is a crucial part of church membership.

But that is quite different from when people simply attend church to hear the gospel on a Sunday morning. In that sense, anyone can come and visit a church: no one should be excluded; there should be no segregation. All can come: people of every ethnicity; redeemed sinners and unredeemed sinners. But membership is the exclusive domain of the born-again believer.

So a church is wrong to discriminate against, for example, Black people or women. But it is right to exclude certain people from the church life and ministry, including those who are not saved and believers who are living in willful sin. The church must segregate for such reasons.

When Churches Shouldn’t Practice Segregation

But now we have a new type of segregation: keeping out “the unclean”, otherwise known as the unvaccinated. As I have argued many times previously, this is wrong.

I would go so far as to say that churches that are discriminating against those who have doubts about a provisionally approved drug being injected into their bodies are not really Christian churches but apostate churches. They have sold out and become a docile tool of the Total State.

Jesus never turned away the sick, the unclean, or those others considered impure. He welcomed them all. “Let only the vaccinated children come unto me” is not what Jesus said. He excluded no one based on their medical condition, and neither should we.

Sure, we can take some sensible steps in the interests of health. Say your child has just come down with the measles. The wise thing to do would be to keep him home for a while and not send him to school or Sunday School. But bear in mind that the diseased are to be quarantined, not the healthy. That is how the “unclean” were treated in the Old Testament (see, for example, Leviticus 14:7-9 and Numbers 5:1-4).

Sadly, many churches have sold out. Thankfully, I found one Melbourne church this past Sunday that did not demand my papers nor sought to exclude me from fellowship. This church was an exception to the rule. As one Australian Christian pastor has written on the situation in Victoria:

Dear Pastor, do you remember an important declaration penned by some brave Queensland pastors advocating against segregation? The declaration many in your state decided to oppose on the basis of ‘tone’ and ‘dubious association’? That declaration has accurately painted the exact same scenario you and many other Australians, especially Victorians, are now being forced to live in.

Did you just not see this coming? Because if that’s the case, this situation is quite concerning since we are talking about one who is called to oversee and protect the flock of God placed under his care. One who is called to keep watch but cannot see obvious threats that will, as you said in your own words, harm the church and stop her from fulfilling its dutiful ministry to all? That can’t work, can it?

Dear Pastor, the care of your flock was given to you, not to Daniel Andrews. Make no mistake, you are responsible, not him. Christ has already ruled on what the life of the church is supposed to be like. That’s settled. There is to be no change on those matters.

If Christ says segregation is wrong and harmful, there is no point in time in which it is okay. Not even for a second. Why, dear Pastor? Why then did you decide to usurp the authority of Christ over your congregation? Why did you believe that the Lord of the flock would be okay with you running the show as per what you thought would be best, in complete opposition to his word?

Christian Businesses Practicing Segregation

What about a Christian business? This scenario is a bit different. While, in theory, a Christian business exists to serve God and others, it is also there to make a profit. Anyone – Christian or non-Christian – can normally partake of their goods and services.

Consider a Christian bookstore. Should they segregate, in this case, against the unvaccinated?

I hate to say it, but this has happened to me. Recently, I was not allowed to enter a high profile Christian bookstore, one that I had been to countless times over the past three decades and at which I have spent untold dollars. I do not desire to single this store out since almost all Christian businesses are now practising segregation. But let me speak briefly about my recent unfortunate encounter there.

I was met there by a ‘guard’ who asked to see my papers. When I said I had none, he told me he could not let me enter. Presumably, he was being paid to exclude customers like me, and he was not the one making the decision. So I could not get upset with him.

But I knew the store manager, and I was able to get her attention. We chatted for a bit outside of the store. She was apologetic, yet she too was presumably doing what her bosses – as well as Dan Andrews – demanded of her. I pointed out to her what a terrific customer I had been for so long and how sad it was to be treated like this.

I even had my list of books in my hand that I was hoping to purchase. The manager offered to get them for me, but I told her that she was far too busy in her role and thanked her for the kind offer.

She explained that Covid was real and a problem. I responded by saying that so is AIDS, herpes, the common cold, and the annual flu, but I was not asked to show my medical status on those infectious diseases.

I told her that if her store and a hundred other Christian stores stood firm, banded together, and resisted these unjust and discriminatory orders, we could probably see things turned around. But all these businesses have just given in and complied without a whimper.

There is no resolve to stand up for what is right. There is no determination among these Christian business owners and managers to let their Christianity make a practical difference. There is no Christian courage or conviction. “We are just following orders” is sadly the mindset for most people. Where have we heard that before?

This Is a Trial Run for the Future

With most churches and Christian businesses simply rolling over before the secular state and doing its bidding, we live in very dark days. I thought that Christians – be they pastors or bookshop owners – were supposed to be different. Sadly, many lives as though it is business as usual.

Too many Christians seem to believe that above all, they should not rock the boat and they simply should do whatever Big Brother tells them to do. So much for a Christian witness. So much for being set apart. So much for letting your light shine in a dark place.

American author Rod Dreher takes a quick tour of the West in a recent column, looking at all the segregation and bigotry inspired by Covid hysteria and Statist overkill. He has collected a series of images making the rounds on social media, where fences can be seen running down the middle of grocery stores and shopping malls to keep the vaccinated and the unvaccinated apart. Dreher writes:

I don’t think these governments believe that fences and shopping restrictions directly hinder the spread of Covid. They are trying to make everyday life harder for the unvaxxed, and to turn them into social pariahs, to compel them to conform and get the vaccines.

Don’t you see what’s happening here?! This is also a trial run for the future. You will have seen academics, medical authorities and even governments declaring that “racism is a public health issue.” It is not difficult to imagine a future in which the state, in the name of health and hygiene, imposes restrictions on those it determines to be bigots.

Does it sound far-fetched? Maybe. But look, if parents angry over what school systems are doing to their kids can be considered potential “domestic terrorists,” the potential is there. Do you really think that the Woke in power would not use public health as an excuse to punish their political opponents?

All around us, we see the rise of ugly Big Brother Statism and the stealing away of our liberties and human rights. We expect the secular left tyrants to engage in this sort of behaviour. We should not expect Christian churches and businesses to happily go along with it.

What did Jesus say about the role of believers in the world?

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. (Matthew 5:13).

Originally published at CultureWatch. Image via the Wall Street Journal.