This Mt Roskill Evangelical Church needs to be taken metaphorically speaking by the scruff of the neck and have its nose rubbed into the mess it’s made. 

The church, which has now been linked with 43 Covid 19 cases, including all six reported yesterday, has been unhelpful, resistant and downright defiant in the face of edicts from the Director General of Health. 

While people are in hospital, while businesses are going under, while febrile souls are living in fear that the Covid will get them, while we're all wearing masks and giving up our liberties for the common good, these hysterical happy clappers are marching to the beat of their own drum and doing exactly what they want when they want irrespective of community sacrifices.

Auckland councillor Efeso Collins attempted to explain the rationale behind the Church's most uncivil disobedience on Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive yesterday.

He cited that issues like abortion and gay marriage have created a “great chasm of relationship” between the church and state.

"As a result of that, the Pacific people are well known for the way they are compliant with any instruction they are given. So if your Pastor or church leader is up front saying we should decline to listen to the Government, then the church is going to follow suit." 

I don't agree with some of the decisions either.  I never have.  And yet I have stuck rigidly to the rules, because while I'm allowed a reckon, I'm not allowed to make up by own rules about a community response. 

That's why talkback radio exists - if the Mt Roskill Church for the Bewildered, otherwise known as the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship, doesn't agree with what the government has decreed, 0800 801080 is the number to call. Have a yarn. Vent. Disagree.

We all knew – well, everyone but the Church for the Bewildered did - that going against the public health orders, deciding we would go our own way and do our own thing - would simply result in lockdown lasting longer.  And that's precisely what will happen. 

As a result of their selfish stupid blind faith - never has it been used more appropriately - Aucklanders and the rest of the country are having to live with restrictions for longer than is necessary. 

• Millions in revenue: Who is the church at centre of Covid cluster?
• Religious beliefs a factor in authorities issues with Mt Roskill cluster

The swollen coffers of that church should be raided and redistributed to the people who have lost their livelihoods as a result of the lockdown.