I’ve purposefully not posted much re: vaccine. However, this article: https://influencemagazine.com/en/Theory/Should-Christians-Take-the-COVID-19-Vaccine from Influence Magazine, is well written and touches on the ethical concerns re: fetal cell lines in the production of vaccines.
Tim and I have chosen to get the vaccine. For a number of reasons. Some of you have PM’d me asking me why we chose to. Ultimately, for me, it came down to the safety of those around me.
1. For my medically fragile, high risk friends, because even though I’m mostly healthy and could most likely come through Covid just fine, they might not be able to. And I don’t want to be the one who would ever harm another.
2. For my friends who don’t share my faith, I want them to feel safe around me. Safety matters to people. And if they don’t feel safe with me, how will they ever feel safe with Jesus? We learned a lot about this when we were fostering.
3. I want to feel safe around them for my own conscience.
4. I talked to my doctor, my kids’ doctor, read countless medical articles by medical professionals I trust, and am completely comfortable with my decision from a scientific/medical standpoint.
5. The arguments over issues regarding vaccines and masks will not be the hill I die on. I’m not going to be distracted with anything that would hinder the gospel.
6. I prayed about it and have peace. I prayed and asked for wisdom. And I’m stepping forward in faith to obey how I feel God is leading me.
7. It is not the mark of the beast. I repeat: it is NOT the mark of the beast.
These were the most important factors contributing to my decision to proceed with the vaccine. Not everyone will arrive at the same decision. It’s personal. Not everyone should get it. Those are issues to discuss with your doctor. Those are issues to pray about. I am grateful for the medical freedom to choose what’s right for me. Should the government mandate issues that should be between a person and their doctor? Should they have to? What about when it involves other people? Children? Medically fragile? Are they not important because you can’t see them? I say that because an argument I hear for medical choice stands in stark contrast to the same demand for medical choice on issues we deem more important than the ones we are throwing down over. We have too many gaps in our thinking to stand on platforms with foundations that lack integrity. It looks hypocritical to the world and I don’t think they’re entirely wrong. We all have gaps. The truth is the church isn’t full of hypocrites, there’s always room for more! But once we identify the gaps, we need to bridge them with truth in wisdom, with love. We all seem hypocritical to others until we see the gap. But when the world watching us watches us own our faith and walk it out, the bridges we are building paves the way to the lost. That’s why it’s the mature who are called to step over stumbling blocks, not the immature.
When Paul ministered to different people groups he made different choices for the sake of the gospel. He could’ve started a social revolution. He could have thrown down over slavery. He could’ve written books about how bad meat was or how great it tastes seasoned with garlic and Cajun spice. He could’ve argued with Timothy about the medical necessity of getting circumsized. Or argued with the Jews about how ridiculous they sound for being more open to receive from someone who was circumsized. He could’ve defended himself to everyone to appear to have integrity, but he didn’t. He didn’t tell slaves to revolt or women how awful the system was. He didn’t wave the “life is unfair” banner in front of Caesar’s house. He called on his Roman rights when he needed to, but his decisions, to the legalistic eye, made it appear like he was double minded. But he wasn’t. Paul, the one who would eat meat sometimes, then refrain at others, was a singularly focused man of integrity. His life was centered on one thing: preaching and furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.
If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
1 Corinthians 9:12, 16, 18-23 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.9.12-23.NIV
In our current political culture we have been given rights the people of Paul’s day yearned for. The Gospel is Good News! It spreads like yeast, it grows like a mustard seed; it has, in its message, the power to transform not only hearts, but social and political structures as well. But His Kingdom doesn’t operate according to our wisdom. We lean towards legalism when we demand our own way. We walk away from relationship when we remove people’s choices.
We have taken up the wrong arms for our fight. We’ve demanded rights instead of praying for real freedom.
Did you know that the freedom Paul mentions having to the Corinthians is the freedom to preach truth freely to them because he wasn’t in their pockets, dependent on them for financial provision?!? We aren’t free if we can’t lay down our rights when Jesus, the one who truly sets us free, asks us to. Our rights hold us if we can’t lay them down. It begs the question, who are we relying on? What holds us back from preaching the truth outright?
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
1 Corinthians 10:24, 31-33 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.10.24-33.NIV
We must take heed not to let our “Christian culture” morph into idolatry. There are powers and principalities wrecking lives in the spiritual realm, meeting no spiritual resistance from the Church because we’ve taken our issues to man’s courts. We’ve forsaken spiritual warfare, prayer, and fasting all for a soapbox. We’ve forgotten or, in some cases, completely failed to preach that true discipleship is about dying to yourself, picking up your cross, and following Christ with singular focus.
It wasn’t the current Christian culture that saved me. It wasn’t the appeal of having rights or a good life that drew me in. It wasn’t medical freedom that delivered me from addiction. It wasn’t the shame of having an abortion that healed my heart and made me fall in love with people. It wasn’t legalism that brought me into a right relationship with the Father. It wasn’t fear that enabled me to forgive people who didn’t deserve it. It was the POWER and the PRESENCE of the All Consuming Fire that fell on my heart with His weighty glory, wrecked me for anything less, broke my heart in a million pieces, shattered my doubt, crippled my fear, birthed desire and hope inside my broken vessel, and seated me in the Presence of the Holy One. It was Calvary that brought me into the Kingdom and it is forever Calvary that will sustain me.
Any argument or debate that lacks the cross at the center isn’t worth my attention. Period. My opinions are too costly if I cause even one person to draw back from hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ, a Perfect Savior who chose to give His life for wretched sinners so they can be forgiven, have their guilty consciences wiped clean, and come back into a right relationship with God the Father.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.13.4-7.NIV
All that to say: choose your hill wisely. The stakes are high. Calvary’s cost requires a Living Altar. Sacrifices don’t get up when the fire gets hot! They steward the flame with their prayers and worship.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1co.15.51-58.NIV
So, my friends, hear me out: have peace, pray, and make your own decision. Figure out what dying to yourself for the sake of the gospel looks like and quit judging how other people are choosing to die to themselves for the sake of the gospel. We have better things to do with our time… Like pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters who are losing their lives for Christ at this very moment. It’s far too planky in the Church. Let’s throw our planks on the fire and watch the world burn for Christ!
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Luke 6:42 NIV
https://luke.bible/luke-6-42
“Come to me,” Jesus says. It’s in dying that we are born to eternal life. Let us be faithful. Let us endure every trial and temptation with patience and love. Let us hold fast to the Truth of His Word, armed with the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the helmet of Salvation, take up the shield of faith, and choose this day whom we will serve. And whether we eat or not, do it all for the glory of God.
The Ethical Concerns section of the article here:
What Are the Ethical Concerns?
Christians who uphold the sanctity of human life express concern about using vaccines that may have used fetal cell lines originally created from an aborted fetus in either the testing or manufacture of the vaccine. The desire to avoid moral compromise is commendable, but we must guard against well-meaning concerns leading to faulty conclusions.
In initial laboratory safety testing of the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines, researchers used a fetal cell line known as human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK-293) cells. This fetal cell line was originally generated in 1973 by researchers in the Netherlands from tissue from an aborted healthy female fetus. The abortion was not performed with the intent of harvesting tissue for research.
The Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccine uses the fetal cell line PER.C6 to produce and manufacture the vaccine. The PER.C6 cell line was developed from retinal cells from an 18-week-old fetus aborted in 1985. Use of this cell line is required to produce a vaccine with the correct immunological characteristics.
Both fetal cell lines were obtained from tissue taken from a human fetus, but these cell lines no longer contain any of the original fetal cells, only descendent cells grown in a laboratory. These descendent cells were never a part of the fetus’ body, nor can they form a living organism. They do not constitute a potential human being, as they are only kidney cells or retinal cells. No new abortions are required to obtain new cell lines for future use.
So, is a person who takes a vaccine manufactured with cells descended from fetal tissue from an abortion many decades ago morally complicit with the original abortion?
The bioethical concept of “moral complicity” considers three factors: timing, proximity, and intent. Timing involves whether the decision to take a certain COVID-19 vaccine will encourage future abortions or is irrelevant to the historical abortion from decades ago.
Proximity distinguishes between the culpability of the original doctor who performed the abortion and a person who takes a COVID-19 vaccine that was produced from viruses grown using cells derived from embryonic tissue donated decades earlier.
Intent clarifies the purpose. The woman in 1973 or 1985 who chose to have an abortion might have intended to end her pregnancy, but the person choosing to take a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 intends to prevent disease in the community. The person choosing to take the vaccine has a clear separation from the intent of the original abortion.
Write Now! 
Here is a blog post that I think is worth your time to read Audrey….
https://slowtowrite.com/how-to-love-your-neighbour-on-the-vaccine/
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