Wati Aier
“Ami to morilibi vaccine nolobo. Moriboli boinai; morilibi heaven ti shita jabo” (Even if I die I will not take the vaccine. I am not afraid to die; even if I die, I will go straight to heaven). These are words spoken by an individual in a video that has been recently circulating in social media in Nagaland state. They are telling words in that they reveal a strain of thinking that has taken hold of people within our state.
Let me only make a personal comment on the ethic of freedom. While it goes without saying that personal freedom must be respected and honored, the relativism of freedom as an argument for personal rights must not end in individualistic subjectivism. That is, acting in a harmful manner under the pretense of personal freedom needs to be evaluated.
This evaluation is crucial because personal freedom is not an end in itself. That is, freedom is never free. There is a high price tag attached to freedom—it implies and mandates responsibility in society. Those who advocate for freedom and liberty must complete its meaning in full.
Putting it in perspective, can a freedom lover take responsibility for wearing his/her mask in a way that fully covers the nose and mouth? Will that person take the responsibility of getting routine Covid-19 tests since the individual chose not to get vaccinated? Will the individual avoid visiting family members and friends and remember that there are vaccinated people who are conscious of unvaccinated people, and who also have their freedom like him/her?
“Morilibi vaccine nolobo” may need a little deeper thinking. Underlying the pursuit of personal freedom is the practice of responsibility. We each need to be accountable for our own decisions because we do not live on our own private islands, but we, especially in our towns and villages, live as part of a greater community. Personal freedom thus becomes an ethical and moral matter, as how we choose to live invariably affects others.
When the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March 2020, as Christians, we prayed to God for His intervention. God’s ways are not always the way we may think. God works in and through different ways and forms. In past pandemics, God’s wisdom guided scientists in the discovery of break through cures. In a subtle way, human survival through history’s diseases is because of God’s hand in these medical innovations.
Faith built on faith alone is existentially an empty faith. The central content of Christianity is in our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who works through physicians, scientists, and the miracle of medicines as much as through the Church and its servants.
Let us give rise to a “new global ethic” mandated by Christ to robustly advocate freedom with high responsibility: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love” (Galatians 5:13).
