Vaccines and your conscience

Both Robert Jeffress and Pope Francis want you to get vaccinated, says Mark Wingfield in the liberal Baptist News Global. Wingfield quotes Jeffress – pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas – as saying, “There is no credible religious argument against the vaccines,” and “There is no legitimate faith-based reason for refusing to take the vaccine.” What Pope Francis says may create difficultly for Catholics with conscientious objections. Because of local church autonomy, what Robert Jeffress says should carry little weight beyond his local congregation.

Apparently, Jeffress is referring to the concerns of some about the ties to fetal cell lines derived from aborted babies. Various religious leaders have expressed concerns about this, though it seems the view of the most hi-profile leaders is that the time line is so far removed from the actual abortions (1970s-1980s) that there is no moral issue – or some express it that the good of the vaccine outweighs the evil of the abortions.

Some have expressed objections in terms that make it sound like baby parts have been taken from current abortions to use in these vaccines. That is not correct. Here are some facts.

• Janssen Research/Johnson & Johnson used abortion-derived fetal cell lines in the development, confirmation, and production of its vaccine.
• Moderna, Inc./National Institutes of Health and Pfizer/BioNTech performed confirmation tests using abortion-derived fetal cell lines, but did not use them in production.
• AstraZeneca/University of Oxford used abortion-derived fetal cell lines in confirmation tests, design & development, and production.

The difference between fetal cell lines and fetal tissue. Fetal cell lines are cells that grow in a laboratory. They descend from cells taken from elective abortions in the 1970s and 1980s. Those individual cells from the 1970s and 1980s have since been grown in the lab for 30 to 40 years, creating fetal cell lines.

Consider the position of Robert Jeffress and others. If you find it compelling, make it part of your conscience. However, if you conscientiously object to the vaccine, do not feel compelled to kowtow to the views of some hi-profile religious leader (or some combination of them). Each Christian believer needs to decide whether he or she feels OK with the way these vaccines were produced. Follow your own conscience!

(Information source, the Charlotte Lozier Institute)