It seems to me we are in the age of vaccine mandates – at least, in Australia, where I'm from - and gone are the days of medical freedom.
Vaccine mandates are nothing new. When I travelled to Nepal in 2015, I could not go there unless I had vaccines for rabies, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and typhoid.
That is perfectly ok. I chose to go to Nepal so I had to obey those requirements. But what if I have to have the vaccine to keep my job or my livelihood?
Sadly in this day and age, in this instance some of us are being asked to make a choice between our principles and our work.
What then becomes of all the people out of work because of their medical preferences. Who pays their unemployment benefits? And is it too much of a stretch to think they might also start removing those welfare benefits for the unvaccinated at some point too?
Then of course, there is the question of who is going to care for the elderly?
The vaccine mandates now in place for anyone working in Australian care homes has forced numerous people to leave the industry in what was already a very short-staffed sector.
Those same fears are apparent in the UK.
I spoke with Natasha Tongariro, who was one of the many to lose her job in the care industry because of her choice. Mrs Tongariro was working double shifts before the mandates set in. Now she says there are nurses combining their existing jobs with cleaning and managing and they are just overwhelmed.
"You won't read about this in the news because the Government does not want people to know about this but the industry is really struggling," she told me.
"I feel really sorry for the elderly and their families because they will be the ones who are going to suffer."
Australia has an ageing population, with the number of Australians aged 65 and over expected to double by the end of the century.
The care of our elderly is not likely to improve while these mandates are in place.
"We were already short-staffed before these mandates came in - workers in this industry are hard to find," said Mrs Tongariro.
There are some who took the vaccine despite their objections.
In the church I pastor, I spoke to a nurse who did not want to get vaccinated but took it because she did not want to lose her job.
She asked me a very interesting question and one that I feel needs to be answered by all believers: "Would I be this quick to compromise my faith if it meant I lost my job?"
It's an interesting question that as believers we need to evaluate.
If people are quick to sacrifice their principles because it means they will lose their job, what else are they prepared to sacrifice?
In New South Wales there was a short period of vaccinated-only attendance in places of worship. In Victoria, church meetings of less than 30 people are allowed with mixed vaccination status but at larger meetings, only the fully vaccinated are allowed.
Churches have generally followed these public health orders and have excluded unvaccinated congregants from attending, despite religious objections.
So the question for church leaders and church members remains: is there a point at which we are prepared to sacrifice what we believe in?
A question for the state is whether it would back down on vaccine measures if there were potential court cases?
Last week Health Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed all NHS England staff will have to be fully jabbed by April despite tens of thousands possibly being forced off the front line by then, and a health system already at breaking point, as well as the opposition of medical bodies.
Some of those opposed are doctors from minority ethnic backgrounds who want to refuse the vaccine on religious grounds, and young woman being or hoping to become pregnant. For the latter, it will feel like having to choose between getting pregnant and saving their job.
It is clear that vaccine mandates are bad for everyone and they will be an own goal for the government in the end, with care homes possibly having to close, and if not, then at the very least a serious compromise having to be made in the quality of care provided for our ageing population.
At the end of the day, vaccine mandates are wrongful coercion and our principles need to win out.
Ben Kruzins is a Pastor of The Hub Baptist Church in Regional New South Wales Australia. He has written articles in The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.
