Christ Church has facilitated three psalm sings over the past three weeks: two at City Hall and one in Friendship Square. Other local churches have joined these singing protests, and Moscow’s progressives are losing their minds over it.
Last Wednesday’s event starkly demonstrates the polarization not only in Moscow but around the world. Three hundred protesters sang four classic Christian hymns and one patriotic song. The counter-protesters attempted to drown out the singing by blaring Cardi B’s “WAP.”
Note the hypocrisy of Moscow’s progressives: they are deeply offended by a group of Christians exercising their right to free speech by singing hymns, yet their solution is to blare a misogynistic song. The lyrics are so vulgar the Daily News cannot even print them.
These protests concerning lockdowns and personal freedom are going on across the world. In Israel, thousands of leftists are protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s anti-protest lockdown. Netanyahu calls it being concerned for the safety of his people while protesters label it “muzzling dissent.”
In Berlin, 38,000 protesters assembled to hear Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. warn that coronavirus measures were stepping stones towards totalitarianism and the surveillance state. Thousands gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square to protest lockdown restrictions and the impending mandatory vaccines. In Italy, Catholic priests posted videos saying the inability of religious institutions to hold services was dictatorial. In New York City, orthodox Jews built bonfires of facemasks to protest the lockdown order during last weekend’s Sukkot holiday.
Politicians insist everyone else wear masks but exempt themselves. Nancy Pelosi was photographed without a mask at a hair salon in San Francisco when all salons were ordered closed. Barbara Boxer was photographed walking through an airport without a mask.
Clearly, those in power believe that there are some causes too meaningful to be inhibited by coronavirus restrictions. There are some groups to whom the rules shouldn’t apply. During the coronavirus lockdown, BLM, Antifa and others rioted across the country without social distancing and with only Antifa wearing their trademark black bloc masks.
On June 30, Moscow Mayor Bill Lambert ordered Moscowans to mask and social distance or be fined $1,000 and jailed for up to six months. On July 12, one hundred people gathered in downtown Moscow for a BLM protest. The Daily News reported all in attendance wore masks, though few practiced social distancing. There were no fines and no arrests.
In September, Moscow’s mayor officiated a wedding with 60 people in attendance. Photos show no one wearing a mask nor social distancing. Mayor Lambert is quoted in the Daily News as saying he did not violate the order because it was a private outdoor event on a 3-acre piece of land outside the city limits. “When you’re at a private function, you absorb and take the risk on yourself if you decide to attend that or not to attend it.”
In his own words, Mayor Lambert agrees with the protesters. He evaluated the risk of the coronavirus and decided it was not great enough to keep him from attending the wedding without masking or social distancing. If the mayor can take this approach while on private property, and since the virus does not distinguish between public and private events, why can we not also take this approach on public property?
The greater hypocrisy involves the Moscow Police, whom I generally respect, being ordered to enforce the mayor’s order on Christ Church while the mayor heads out into the country with 60 friends to behave the same way.
Why is the mayor permitted to use discretion at a gathering of 60 people outdoors while Moscow residents are not allowed to do the same?
The hypocrisy in Moscow needs to end. The mayor should end the mask mandate since he has clearly assessed the risks of a mask-less private life and found them negligible.
The residents of Moscow should likewise stop with the hypocrisy of being offended at honest, respectful free speech while attempting to drown out common sense any vile way they can.
If there’s one thing this crisis should have taught us, it’s that the eyes of history are on our leaders during this pandemic, and history is not kind to hypocrites.
Dale Courtney served 20 years in nuclear engineering aboard submarines and 15 years as a graduate school instructor. He now spends his spare time chasing his grandchildren around the Palouse.
