Dear Editor, I find this quite interesting that churches in the Cook Islands want to tell their parishioners to stay home if they are unvaccinated at a time when they can ill afford to turn people away because of diminishing numbers, especially the younger ones.

I find this quite interesting that churches in the Cook Islands want to tell their parishioners to stay home if they are unvaccinated at a time when they can ill afford to turn people away because of diminishing numbers, especially the younger ones.

Well it's probably about time that people learn that to have faith you actually don't need to go to church.

If nothing else it may wake them up to the tithing, the fire and brimstone, the sinners go to hell mantra that passes for church attendance and the need to pay their pastors and support their lifestyles as well as maintenance, upkeep, restorations, and all manner of financial burdens that church goers face by going to church.

Maybe people will wake up and find that for centuries they have been rorted for believing, while the churches and their pastors, especially those of an evangelical bent and their families, have benefitted from the largess of their congregations.

I don't see where their God tells them they need to do this to pay their pastors for a lifestyle that they can only dream about.

Hebrews 10:25 in summary tells us to meet together as believers and to encourage one another to do so. Hence go to church. However, one can do so in one's home, or in fact if this was available online, one could do so from the sanctity of one's home electronically as millions of others are doing.

Romans 12:5 in summary says as members of the body of Christ, we belong to each other. In other words, we need each other to grow up in faith, to learn to serve, to love one another, to exercise our spiritual gifts. Yes, go to church, but the reality is you can easily do this at home with other like-minded believers.

So churches, if you are discouraging people from attending because they are unvaccinated, and because you have been told it is for safety reasons, isn't the reason we are getting vaccinated, because we will have some protection and benefit from doing so and not because we are at risk from the unvaccinated. I would have thought the unvaccinated would be at risk from the vaccinated and not from the virus, but because of segregation, discrimination and promoting a them and us culture, the very thing your faith rails against. Hypocrisy in essence and therefore I suggest you think again about ostracising those of the faith who are not vaccinated.

Te Tuhi Kelly, Progressive Party

Our health

I read the reply to me from Secretary of Health Bob Williams.

Ninety nine per cent of it was from the Encyclopedia of Bureaucratic Platitudes.

You know platitudes, giving a false impression of wisdom, making it easy to accept falsehoods.

The only time Bob really broke through his bureaucratic condescension was right at the end when he could not hold it in any longer and his racism reared its ugly head.

You see, Bob told me perhaps I should return to my country of origin, if I was so keen to access medical marijuana.

When a person says go back to your own country, it is a phrase very much owned by the ignorant and racist.

Bob complained in his reply to me that I never called his office or emailed him, so I got hold of him today, even though he didn't leave me his phone number or email address.

I told Bob his go back to your own country comment reminded me of the redneck bigots slogan of love it or leave it, directed at anti-Vietnam war protesters.

He said it was fair comment.

Bob's failure to recognise his own racism is his failure to recognise his own prejudices.

When it comes time to hearing actual criticism, Bob gets all prickly with me for doing so and wants me to pack up and leave.

And so it makes complete sense if this is not my home, that I have no right to criticize it.

But it is my home, I have just as much right to criticize, and want to make it better, as anyone in the real world, Bob would be reprimanded, interviewed by Human Resources and fired within the day.

Nonetheless, Bob said he would contact me to set up a meeting next week to discuss medical marijuana.

Steve Boggs

Secretary of Health Bob Williams replies

Steven called me first thing this morning which was a surprise. A meeting will be scheduled with Mr Boggs next week at the response of a conversation that he started. No further comments from me on this subject.