C.I.A. seeks to educate the public

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT – BOX WITH MAIN STORY Pastor Shaun Cotterill, Berlin Heights Baptist Church, will speak on "What's Your Hill to Die On?" at the Milestone Events Center, 11 S. Prospect St., Norwalk, at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Christ In Action (C.I.A.) hosts community meetings on the third Wednesday of every month on topics of interest to the public regarding government overreach. NORWALK — "You try to play by the rules, but it's always a moving target," said Dan Robertson, one of the founders of Christ in Action (CIA), a grassroots group formed to educate and motivate the public about government overreach, especially with mandates based on COVID. "We can all walk the halls of Walmart, but we can't go to church? How does that make sense," Robertson said. "The government said that church is not essential. You could still go to the liquor store, you could still get an abortion, but you couldn't go to church." That was the impetus for Robertson and Cheryl Pugh to form CIA after meeting at the 2020 National Day of Prayer observation at the steps of the county courthouse. Since then, a group of about 20 people has been meeting every two weeks at Robertson's house to discuss, research and plan to bring their message to the public. That group listens to reports from its education, health care, politics and technology committees, and discusses all topics and issues. Then they put together an action plan for that month's community education event. "Boiled down, our mission is to educate and to motivate with Christ at our center," Robertson said. "We're not the 'tin-hat' people. I believe there is a coronavirus. I question what they're telling me as far as the severity of it." It's a matter of playing with statistics, according to Robertson. "All the information is so skewed," he said. The COVID death rate is down because doctors have developed effective treatments, Robertson said, so the government now emphasizes the number of cases instead of the number of deaths. CIA members also question mandates about masks. "There are so many inconsistencies about wearing masks," Robertson said. "At first, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) said masks are ineffective. Fast forward, wear a mask for just a little while. Now they're saying wear two masks." Robertson said he had been debating government tactics even before talking with Pugh. "I walk the reservoir for quiet time to think," he said. "I had so many questions about what was going on. The government said it was going to be seven days, then 14 days to flatten the curve ... and now it's more than a year later and back and forth on restrictions. It became apparent there was something else going on." Pugh agreed. "This seems to be a big smokescreen for an agenda," she said. "You can't just listen to the powers that be." Both Robertson and Pugh question whether the continual mandates and restrictions and lockdowns are actually a form of social conditioning to make people believe they have to follow any government rules without question. "We, as a society, can't fall for that," Robertson said. "What happened to freedom of choice? Plus the rules are not consistent. They say trust the science, but won't give up the scientific data the rules are based on. They have now stretched coronavirus so far it has 44 symptoms. If you don't have any of those, they want you to be scared of having it and being asymptomatic." He said the core CIA group is made up of educated people, including a doctor, nurses, school board members and an IT professional. They research both sides of every issue that comes before them. "We're trying to be as objective as possible," Robertson said. "We try to look at all the data." He stressed that a basic of tenet of CIA is reasonable and civil discussion. "We welcome anybody to come and discuss things in a civil manner," Robertson said. "If you want to come and just yell, that's not helping anybody. We're trying to push back civilly — meeting, listening to the other side, writing letters, listening to health department meetings, going to school board meetings. "We're looking at what's going on and trying to make sense of it," he continued. "We're not the group that's going to go out and have a sit-down protest in the middle of main street. We just want to stop the fear-mongering." Before CIA brought in a Canton business owner to tell her story of battling her health department over mask restrictions, Pugh visited local businesses to invite them to the talk. She said several local business owners said they were worried attending such a meeting would invite trouble with the local health department so they were scared to attend. Instead of just blindly following politicians and bureaucrats, Robertson said, CIA wants people to learn to stand up and ask questions. "To me, it should be a huge red flag when the government is supposed to work for us and now it's upside down and we're doing whatever the government says. In the inception of our country, we said we have God-given rights and people shouldn't give up their freedoms too easily. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely. We, as a people, have to stand up to that or else we're going to be in a lot of trouble. Our freedoms are constantly being infringed upon," he said. CIA has a Facebook page under C.I.A. Christ In Action — For the love of God & Country and in on MeWe as C.I.A. Christ In Action on Huron County Patriots. Pugh urged interested people to check out those resources or contact her through email at djanr5@gmail.com. "Please join our community efforts," she said. "We need your patriotic passion, voice and energy."