The Ezekiel Declaration

[Boundary Rider]

At the beginning of September a fellow Streetcar rider sent me this link to "The Ezekiel Declaration"
(See: --- https://caldronpool.com/ezekieldeclaration/ )

When I first received it I tried to do a background check on the three names of Pastors claiming to be the authors. I did this because this Declaration has many of the earmarks of Right Wing Christian groups (the Religious right) in America who have been strongly Anti-Vaccination and equally Anti-Mask wearing as a protective measure.

I initially did the background check earlier in September by doing some fact checking: ---
• The website has changed since I first received it, on September 1st and only the names of the three Baptist ministers, all from Queensland are visible, whereas when I first saw it on September 1st the names of several hundred church members were clearly displayed, and even then they covered a wide range of churches, not just Baptists. That number is now claimed to exceed 3K+ Church Leaders and 24.9K+ Members & Attendees. That number of 28,000 +/- signatures is very likely to have expanded not only the Christian affiliations represented , but has very likely expanded the agendas they bring, which, given the Main concern of the Declaration (the effects of Covid-19 management) is very likely to include the Antivax Christian lobby
• I then checked the website associated with the email.....Caldron Pool , and here it is --- https://caldronpool.com/ , and at the bottom of the Declaration is another way of accessing their concerns and agendas
• I further checked it on Wikipedia, with this result ----- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldron_Pool
• Both of those sites establish for me a link to the Conservative Right in the churches of America, which my gut was registering above
• Further, the wording suggests to me that they are playing on the Prime Minister’s association with Brian Houston and Hillsong to take more notice of it than might otherwise happen to such a Declaration in our country which has clearly separated Church and State by our Constitution

I decided to wait before posting the "Ezekiel Declaration" to see if my suspicions had any merit.

Since then, now at the end of October, I did some further digging, and this is the current picture: ---
Background research on the Ezekiel Declarationn
• All three pastors are from Queensland and are all apparently Baptist pastors.
• All are relatively young and are strongly evangelistic in their approach within the framework of their denomination. None of their website information indicates whether there is a charismatic/Pentecostal character in their church and ministry
• Within three days of the release of the declaration it had been endorsed by the Australian Christian Lobby who lists its Purposes as Anti Abortion movements, Criticism of Islam, and Censorship. From Wikipedia: --- “The Australian Christian Lobby is a conservative Christian advocacy organisation based in Canberra. It is similar to the Christian right lobby groups found in the United States. Wikipedia
• There has been strong pushback against it from The Gospel, Society and Culture Committee (GSC) of the Presbyterian Church of NSW and the ACT (PCNSW) has issued a statement opposing the signing of this petition. The committee, speaking for themselves rather than the whole PCNSW, are concerned that the petition contains untruths. (See: --- https://www.eternitynews.com.au/austral ... ngelicals/

It is somewhat ironic that the Declaration opens with "Watchmen, it's time to speak" as I have been performing such a watchman role on Streetcar since I joined in 2010, and I'm doing it now: ---- Be very careful of this well-intentioned "Ezekiel Declaration" and where it may lead, and who may use it as a platform for the worst of what has come out of America in the name of Christianity in the last four years.