Fruit of the Poisonous Tree: Abortion, Fetal Cell Research, and Christian Ethics.
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree: Abortion, Fetal Cell Research, and Christian Ethics.
Including a Review of Archpriest Alexander Webster's "The Moral Peril of Taking Most COVID-19 Vaccines" from Let No One Fear Death
Fetal Cells and COVID-19 Vaccines
In October 2021, Project Veritas released documents and emails showing that Phizer instructed employees to withhold information about Phizer’s COVID-19 vaccine’s connection to fetal cell research.
One Phizer employee admitted in an email that the company’s vaccine was connected to fetal cell research but that “the Vatican doctrinal committee has confirmed that they consider it acceptable for Pro-Life believers to be immunized.” This demonstrates Phizer’s ignorance of Christianity, as the Roman Catholic Church does not represent Christ nor His Church. Thus, Phizer sought to justify the vaccine’s link to abortion by assuring employees the jab was Pro-Life because some people connected to the Vatican said so:
The moral and ethical components are not a concern for Phizer. The concern for Phizer is optics. Phizer would not be seeking out members of “Pro Life” movements to endorse their products if they did not think their products links to abortion were an ethical, moral, or spiritual issue for a significant number of consumers and Phizer does not want to “lose” those custmers. Phizer Phil acknowledges that “HEK 293T cells…are ultimately derived from an aborted fetus.” Phil then immediately mentions how a “Vatican doctrinal committee” endorsed immunization. Endorsing vaccines as a whole does not endorse the use of fetal cells derived from abortion. You can not separate the act of murder from the act of abortion. Thus, everything derived from the act of abortion is a “fruit of the poisonous tree.” Life can not be created from death.
These emails demonstrate how those working at Phizer view human life as nothing more than a clump of fetal cells that they use to develop products to sell to consumers and governments. To Phizer, fetal cells are a means to an end and a necessary to develop more products. And if Phizer views a child murdered by abortion as research material, do you think they care about the welfare of their customers?
In conclusion, Phizer:
Knew that its COVID-19 vaccine used fetal cell lines derived from abortion
Knew that the use of fetal cell lines was an ethical and religious issue for potential customers and for individuals who filed religious exemption requests for vaccine mandates
Attempted to withhold this information from the public
Instructed employees to avoid mentioning the vaccine’s connection to fetal cell lines
Cited a heterodox schismatic Church’s committee as endorsing the vaccine, thereby making the vaccine ethical for religious individuals
At least one employee lied to at least one customer about the Phizer vaccine use of fetal cell line research
Thus, Phizer is not an ethical company and is anti-life. The company demonstrates its willingness to profit from abortion, lie about the use of fetal cell lines to customers, and manipulate decisions made by non-Christian churches to market their product to “Pro-Life” individuals. Phizer uses fetal cell line research for other products, thus the COVID-19 vaccine is not an “outlier.” This shows Phizer is committed to using fetal cell lines and has no intent to stop using fetal cell lines.
Phizer is deriving a financial benefit from murder. And a failure to resist evil is no different than engaging in the evil itself. Phizer is concerned about how the public will react to its use of fetal cell research, not about the ethics of fetal cell research. Phizer was aware the government mandated COVID-19 vaccines and that employees and students were applying for religious exemptions. Phizer knew the vaccine’s connection to fetal cell lines was relevant to countless religious-based exemption requests. Yet Phizer sought to conceal, minimize, and obfuscate the fetal cell research used to produce/research/manufacture their COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, Phizer withheld information that could have helped individuals obtain an exemption. Which led to a financial benefit for Phizer, as vaccine mandates and the denial of religious accommodations increased consumption of Phizer COVID-19 vaccines.
Lying to consumers to increase sales is also a crime. Thus, Phizer is immoral even by the standards of the American legal system.
Religious Discrimination: Vaccine Mandates
Religious accommodations are based on sincere belief, as the EEOC does not require individuals to have logical or mainstream religious views to claim or request religious accommodations. Additionally, the EEOC does not require clergy or religious authority to validate an individual’s sincere religious beliefs. Nor does an accommodation require that your religious beliefs are identical to the denomination you claim to belong to. Thus, a Catholic can have a sincere religious belief objecting to COVID-19 vaccines even if Francis gets 6 boosters and puts a Phizer billboard next to the Vatican.
Despite these legal protections under the EEOC, some employers implemented aggressive and questionable tactics to address COVID-19 religious exemption requests.
The EEOC has previously upheld the right of employees to be exempt from mandatory vaccines based on sincerely held religious beliefs. The EEOC made such a determination several years before COVID-19 in regards to a flu vaccine mandate imposed by a hospital in 2016. What is noteworthy about this case is the hospital “granted medical exemptions for 14 employees and rejected all 6 religious exemption requests,” as the US Department of Defense has likewise been accused of catagorically rejecting all religious exemption requests while granting medical exemptions. Because the EEOC considered this behavior improper years ago, all employers, including the DoD, violated the law if they categorically denied all religious accomodation requests to from COVID-19 vaccine requirements. If the government will not follow its own rules and laws, it loses all moral authority to impose laws upon citizens.
Thus, employers who categorically denied religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandate policies were knowingly violating EEOC decisions.
One employer required those applying for religious exemptions to disclose whether they had taken other medications the employer claims are connected to abortion research.
Despite the EEOC clearly stating on their website and in a litany of cases that a religious exemption’s adjudication can not consider whether the religious belief is logical or consistent, employers decided to circulate claims that medications were invented as early as the 1800s were connected to fetal cell research.
However, none of the articles covering this story provide details about how each medication is connected to fetal cell lines, nor provides citations for the claims.
Dr. Lawler, an “expert who is a practicing Catholic,” claims that nearly all medical products we use have a connection to fetal cell lines. If this is true, then Christians should avoid all medications connected to fetal cell lines. Just because a sin is hard to avoid does not mean you have no obligation to avoid that sin. A failure to resist evil is, theologically and philosophically, no different than directly participating in an evil act.
Lawler is presenting a nihilist rationale based on the absence of truth. Lawler does not claim abortion is good, but if almost all medications are connected to abortion and Lawler is a doctor working in the medical system, is Lawler prescribing these medications to patients? And if so, can Lawler get communion if his job involves the use of products that are developed from fetal cells derived from the sin of murder?
Individuals like Lawler are a danger in a Western world that is largely unaware that the Roman Catholic Church left the Church of Christ in 1054. When Rome chose to leave the Church of Christ, the Vatican became an antichrist institution and a heretical, unGodly church. Unfortunately, the average American seems to think Francis the Apostate of Rome represents Christianity. Countless public health officials and other “vax-fascists” routinely parroted Roman Catholic sources to “prove” Christians did not have a valid religious exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine. This misconception matters, as an employer denying a religious exemption filed by a Christian based on statements by heretics who are not Christain, would, in itself, be an act of religious discrimination and a demonstration that the person adjudicating the request is intolerant and uneducated. Likewise, forcing Americans to comply with public health guidelines rooted in The Book of Leviticus would be a violation of the establishment clause of the first amendment. Has anyone else found it curious that The Book of Leviticus, written between 500-300BC, outlines contact tracing, quarantine, social distancing, and masking policies in response to disease and that in 2020, public health officials used these same religious based remedies while claiming they were “following the science?” Is “The Science” Mosiac law? Or is The Science just coincidentally rooted in Mosiac law?
The hospital system claimed the attestation was to ensure employees had sincere beliefs and to “educate” them on how many medications are connected to fetal cells.
Imagine the narcissism it requires to demand someone “prove” the sincerity of their belief by telling them “basically all medicine is connected to fetal cells.” The implication is these anti-religious employers want to let the religious employee know they likely took a medication tied to fetal cells and that they think the employee is a hypocrite.
This is simply a method to shame the applicant into believing they have to “prove” their religious beliefs are contradicted and logical despite having no legal requirement to do so. Even though the EEOC does not allow an employer to consider such factors when deciding a religious accomodation request. Thus, the employer giving this attestation to employees was an act of religious discrimination because it violated EEOC anti-discrimination policies.
Employers demanding their employees get a vaccine to keep the vaccinated workers safe is not logical. Thus, the same employers pushing irrational policies demand employees “prove” their religious beliefs are rational. How can someone supporting irrational policies or beliefs judge the rationality of someone else’s belief? Thus, the employers justifying their vaccine mandates under the theory of “public health” are “the bad guys.” Because workplace discrimination is unlawful. Demanding a logical religious reason to not comply with an illogical work policy is illogical in itself. And reminiscent of the insanity of the bureaucracy chronicled in Catch-22. And if the vast majority of employees are vaccinated and the vaccine is 95% effective, then the vaccinated workers supporting vaccine mandates are responsible for promoting vaccine hesitancy. Because if your vaccine works, why are you worried about what other people are doing in response to COVID-19?
The EEOC established updated guidelines in October 2021 to clarify employees can not assume an employees religious accommodation request is “insincere” because the employer thinks the employee’s behavior deviates from their religious beliefs:
Tricare, a government affiliated medical insurance provider, claims that Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, and many other OTC products "used “a historical fetal cell line.” The fact Tricare’s website admits the Phizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines used fetal cells makes it curious why the Department of Defense is denying religious exemptions. If the DoD knows abortion violates religious beliefs (“Though shall not kill,” one commandment of love) and that the vaccines are connected to fetal cell research, no employee requesting an exemption on those grounds should be denied an accommodation. Because it is self-evident that a vaccine connected to abortion would violate the religious beliefs of employees and soldiers.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Myths Tricare page mirrors a Reuters Face-Check from April 1, 2021. In the fact check, the Reuters examined the claim that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine included fetal cells. Both Tricare and Reuters address the same claim: COVID-19 vaccine contains aborted fetal cells.
The only social media post Reuters linked in the fact check has just 49 emoji reactions and 97 comments. Considering Facebook claims to have 2.9 billion users, it is odd a Facebook post with such little engagement resulted in Reuters devoting an entire fact check to it. The Facebook post claimed that “the first ingredient in J+J vaccine is aborted fetal DNA.” The Facebook post is flagged for containing “partly false information.”
Reuters completed the independent fact-check for the Facebook post:
The claim Reuters fact-checked was “Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine does not contain aborted fetal cells,” which Reuters concludes is only partially false:
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine either does or does not contains aborted fetus cells. So how can Reuters conclude the claim is only partially false?
Especially since a representative from Johnson and Johnson explicitly denied the claim fetal cells were in the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine:
The Reuters fact check confirms that the Moderna, Phizer, and Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines all used fetal cell lines in their development:
The Reuters fact check included a link to an article on Nebraska Medicine’s website. The article was written Dr. James Lawler, who was quoted in the Becker Hospital News article earlier in this article as a “Catholic” who supports immunization despite the connection between fetal cell lines and COVID-19 vaccines. It is surprising to see how Becker Hospital Review and Reuters, despite being anti-Christian organizations, both rely on the same “expert Catholic” to repudiate religious and moral objections to fetal cell line research and vaccine development:
North Dakota Health (official government website) released a multi-page document reviewing the use of fetal cells in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. The document is an excellent example of “experts” encouraging and manipulating individuals to ignore moral, spiritual, and ethical issues of the vaccines in exchange for the promise of maybe preventing death. Before one argues “but there are only religious arguments against abortion,” it would be useful to remember even the existentialist Friedrich Nietzsche said love is that which is beyond good and evil. Murdering children is not an act of love, regardless of what potential future benefit scientists can derive from their death and cultivate from their cells. Rene Descartes's famous quip “I think, therefore I am,” is yet another philosophical argument repudiating abortion, as the current standard to judge when life is sentient is not when the first thought occurs.
The North Dakota Health document is best summarized as follows:
The vaccines don’t have fetal cells
All vaccines used fetal cells in the development/research process
The vaccine would not exist without fetal cell research
The vaccines are “ethically uncontroversial” because some people at the Vatican said so
The introduction starts by explicitly stating “some of the COVID-19 vaccines used cells originally isolated from fetal tissue…some of which were originally derived from abortion.” Would it not have been simpler to say “some COVID-19 vaccines used fetal cells obtained from abortions?” Of course. But that would sound like you’re benefiting from the murder of a child instead of a being public health hero! And “a murdered baby saved my life” sticker doesn’t look as nice as an “I’m Vaccinated” sticker.
The depersonalized presentation of fetal cells demonstrates the writer is attempting to separate the emotional elements of infanticide from the logical elements of scientific research. This is intentional to dehumanize the victim of the abortion. The document claims the fetal cells were obtained from elective abortion, yet the child never provided consent to be murdered. The mother gave consent to doctors to murder her child. And that is not an “elective” procedure for all humans involved.
Using letters and numbers to refer to specific fetal cell lines is another example of an attempt to dehumanize the act of abortion. Is there a difference between preventing something with the potential for life from living and murdering something that is already alive? Because the outcome of both is an absence of life. So why can the author not be honest with what the act of abortion truly is? Because they want you to choose to take the product despite knowing its connection to the sin of murder.
This focus on dehumanization and presenting the murder of children as an “elective medical procedure” is likely why fetal cells are named HEK-293 instead of Jane Doe Infanticide Victim 1 and John Doe Infanticide Victim 2. Using a human name for fetal cells would make them just a little too life like for the people who are in labs trying to save you from invisible enemies, some of which leak from their ultra secure biolabs.
Notice the writer refers to experimenting on fetal cells derived from abortion being used “for proof of concept.” The dehumanizing word choice is intentional. Because the writer’s goal is not to convey truth or to convince the reader to make an ethical decision. It is to minimize the connection between the act of infanticide and the COVID-19 vaccine. This reaffirms the mentality of “the ends justifying the means,” as the medical community and public health don’t care that fetal cells were used in the development of the vaccines. They care about vaccine uptake and “getting shots in arms.”
Despite the fact the document begins with addressing fetal cell research for “people of faith,” the document does not cite any Christain sources. Nor does it mention any opinions from the many other religions people practice (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc;). Instead, the lone sources are Roman Catholic and Baptist (which the atheists call a “lack of equity”). Rome left the Church of Christ in 1054 and Baptists were never members of the Church of Christ. So neither Catholics nor Baptists can speak for Christians. If that sounds harsh, keep in mind The Church is not a physical place. It is ultimately about your personal communion with God, as belonging to the right church and partaking in the right rituals is meaningless without true faith and love of God. Otherwise it would be about works and not faith. Any criticism of denominations is based in theology and not a judgement to the many Christians in the world who don't have the opportunity to find a physical member of The Church to worship (COVID lockdowns being one example). And while Rome has strayed from The Church, that schism can be fixed, which would bring necessary unity between the faithful committed to the Orthodox Ethos of Christianity. A love of God and of others is that which ultimately binds Christians together.
Any public health or medical expert organization presenting information about the COVID-19 vaccine being ethical by basing that conclusion on heretics and apostates is not following the science of theology. But in their defense, the author of this document likely never read the entire Bible or the Constitution. Googling “religious leaders who support the COVID vaccine” is probably a lot quicker than reading a long book that tells you the answer to all your problems on and find meaning on earth. This intellectual laziness is a true pandemic among government bureaucrats.
The government publication ends with a strong Call-To-Action: the Temple of Pedophiles in Rome preaches moral relativism (no is saying yes when you can afford the best attorneys in the world). A group of “Catholic” bishops advises to choose the lesser of evils! Choosing any evil is choosing to do evil. Despite what the Vatican claims, it’s really that simple.
Pride comes before the fall. And what is pride but a willingness to overlook the murder of a child and the cultivation of their cells for decades of research to develop a vaccine that might prevent you from getting COVID-19. Then again, is that not the mentality you would expect from a church that lied and covered up the serial raping and murdering of children and women across the world for centuries? The fact this is the church North Dakota’s government wants to take spiritual and moral advice from in order to educate the public about the benefits of killing children makes me better understand why nearly 22.7% of Americans endorse the statement “that US institutions are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles” who traffic children for sex (which is a form of Satanic worship because a child is pure innocence and mankind are the icons of God).”
The militant Athiest west is so ignorant of God they do not understand the simplicity and absolute truth in stating America is a Satanic empire that has a child sexual abuse and infanticide pandemic. Millions of children who had no limitations, who could have grown up to become the type of moral, loving people this world needs dearly, have been murdered. So scientists could harvest their cells and develop promising new medical treatments. And yet here we are, decades after the fetal cell lines were cultivated, and there’s still no cure for cancer. But we have found out SSRIs don’t cure depression and that OxyContin is addictive.
And how many mothers have regretted their decision? What are the ripple effects of all the trauma and death that decades of infanticide that has profited science and pharmaceutical companies have caused? What if the fetal cells have sentience and feelings? Is testing medical products on cloned fetal cells even necessary? Should we really be testing anything for human consumption that scientists think warrants test subjects they consider non-living or non-human?
But North Dakota Health doesn’t want your mind going down that rabbit hole. The church with a bunch of pedophile priests said it’s ethical to take the vaccine.
Moral of the story: publications and entities that have supported mass COVID-19 vaccinations and lockdowns are recycling the same relativist justifications from the same corrupted churches while dehumanizing abortion and fetal cells and shaming noncompliance. Considering many of the sources include medical articles, authors with medical degrees, and government websites, one has to wonder how so many unrelated people write such similar content with such similar arguments and such similar sources on the same topic. Plagiarism or groupthink?
Let No Man Fear Death Chapter 7
Archpriest Alexander Webster wrote Chapter 7 in Let No One Fear Death is essential reading for a nuanced theological, Christian, and ethical assessment of COVID-19 vaccines. The author provides a detailed analysis of common arguments supporting the use of vaccines connected to fetal cells. The chapter provides a blunt repudiation of justifications for the use of vaccines connected to fetal cell line research while providing the reader with a concise and accurate summary of the development of fetal cell lines and the proper Orthodox position of abortion and the fruits it bears. The essay is a necessary shock to the conscience about the evil stain that abortion has left upon American society.
Archpriest Webster summarizes his argument as follows:
“An unanticipated “side effect” of receiving the vaccines currently available is, from an Orthodox Christian perspective, a post-factum collusion in the original intrinsically evil acts of abortion that enabled those vaccines to be produced and/or tested and made available around the world (Archpriest Webster, p. 119).”
Archpriest Webster begins by assessing statements issued about COVID-19 by Orthodox Hierarchs and Synods supporting COVID-19 vaccination. He dissects and repudiates pro-vaccination positions taken by The Greek Synod, Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Elpidophoros, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Metropolitan Tikhon, Bishop Pantraty of Troitsk, the OTSA, and the Assembly of Canonical Bishops of the USA. The “lockstep” position of these independent individuals and groups representing Orthodoxy used various justifications to advocate for vaccination against COVID-19, with some taking aggressive, authoritarian positions equating a refusal to receive the vaccine as a sin and threatening monks and clergy who would not take the COVID-19 vaccines.
It is important to remember to view this in the context of the pandemic. As the first portion of this article demonstrated, even government agencies and Phizer cited the positions of various Catholics when discussing the faith-based and ethical “issues” of COVID-19 vaccinations. During this period of time, the United States, as well as other countries, issued various forms of vaccine mandates. At least in America, individuals had the right to request reasonable accommodation and to be exempt from employer vaccine mandates. Thus, when heretical clergy makes public statements, such as Archbishop Elpidophoros’ statement that no clergy in his jurisdiction have the right to assist laymen with religious exemption petitions, they are waging war against The Church itself. They are abusing their title and position of authority to do the work of demons. The devil is the father of lies. Thus, when Elpidophoros claims there “is no exemption in the Orthodox Church for Her faithful from any vaccination for religious regions (Webster, p. 126),” despite knowing the vaccine is a fruit born from the tree of abortion and that he has no canonical authority to declare all religious exemption issued by clergy “invalid,” Elpidophoros is choosing Lucifer as his father by lying to the world about the position of The Church in regards to abortion.
It is indisputable that the murder of a child is what led to the fetal cell lines which were used to develop COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, Elpidophoros is continuing the sin of Cain and deeming virtue a sin while declaring sin a virtue. This is a great apostasy, as Elpidophoros is dehumanizing the act of murdering an innocent icon of God because Elpidophoros, although he is not a doctor, believes he is enough of an expert to recommend a medical intervention for people he has never met. This is textbook pride. Elpidophoros has no canonical authority to make declarations for all Orthodox Christians, yet is presenting his personal opinion as a dogma of The Church. Elpidophoros dismisses those who disagree as “conspiracy theorists,” which is a favorite tactic of secular intelligence agencies. Why would a pious Orthodox Christain be so quick to parrot secular public health phrases and talking points in a statement he claims to be religious in nature? Perhaps Elpidophoros, like some corrupted Pharisees, is looking for an earthly king to build an earthly kingdom instead of the Lord or Lords.
The second section of Archpriest Webster’s essay delves into a well-known Orthodox bioethics book written by Tristram Engelhardt (Foundations of Christian Bioethics). A primary criticism Archpriest Webster has with Engelhardt’s position of the moral permissibility “to use tissues and organs from fetuses who die accidentally (Webster, p. 133),” is that it is moral relativism. A good thing can not be sown from the loss of innocent life, whether the death was intentional or accidental. Webster argues that “the destruction of human life in the mother’s body at any stage is equivalent to murdering an innocent human being,” and that “Engelhardt proposes a false teleology (Webster, p. 134).” Engelhardt’s justification of the use of fetal cells in certain situations is a “strictly secular, non-Orthodox utilitarian argument focused exclusively on the supposedly good intent of those who may wish ‘to use tissues and organs from aborted preborn babies as a means to save human lives from deadly diseases with, however, total disregard for the evil intent that led to the willful, intrinsically evil action of abortion in the first place- that is, the needless, violent destruction of human persons that is the means or object of such abortions (Webster, p. 137).” While Engelhardt cited human weakness to substantiate his position of the permissibility of the harvesting and use of fetal tissue, organs, and cells, Archpriest Webster’s response is necessarily blunt: “Whether a moral actor is personally penitential for or indifferent of the act itself does not mitigate the objective enormity of the exploitation of aborted preborn baby cell lines in the development and testing of the COVID-19 vaccines Webster, p. 139).”
Archpriest Webster proceeded to comment on and repudiate several sections of The Orthodox Theological Society in America’s (OTSA) March 8th, 2021 statement entitled “COVID-19 Vaccines: How They Are Made and How They Work to Prime the Immune System to Fight SARS-CoV2.” This section provides a detailed analysis of several claims made by the OTSA, including OTSA’s choice to describe abortion as “therapeutic” and claim that “the vaccines present the best ethical option to promote health and life, despite their connection with the use of fetal cells (Webster, p. 144).” As Archpriest Webster correctly points out, “whatever intentions the scientists had when they sought the organs deemed necessary for their biomedical experiments, these do not mitigate, much less justify, the original abortion abomination. Nor are anyone’s hands who was connected in any way to these abortions- from the willing mother to the attending medical personnel and the scientists - morally clean (Webster, p. 144).”
OTSA’s statement, like Archbishop Elpidophoros, has no canonical authority nor can serve as a statement representing all Orthodox Christians. The OTSA’s statement is lacking actual theological discussions and citations despite the “t” in OTSA standing for “theological.” The statement overall lacks references to Patristic Fathers, Ecumenical Councils, and scripture. All of which are standard in any serious theological paper or article.
There are some very interesting issues with the OTSA statement involving plagiarism and using the heterodox Public Orthodoxy, which is run by a non-Christian college, as a source. The OTSA released its original vaccine statement and a revised version in March 2021, as well as an addendum (both of which are below).
The OTSA statement includes significant plagiarism. Of the first 1,000 words in the article, excluding the sections citing clergy statements, Duplichecker found that 79% of the exert was plagiarized!
The next 1,000 words of the OTSA statement were 56% plagiarized:
The next 1,000 are 44% plagiarized:
The statement includes no citations to scripture, Ecumenical Councils, or Church Fathers. This is odd considering the OTSA claims to be a theological society, as theological writings require the use of scripture and biblical and Church sources (at least in Orthodoxy). Thus, the authors of the OTSA statement are attempting to argue that it is ethical and permissible for Orthodox Christians to take vaccines in which fetal cells were used (at any stage of development) while the authors plagiarize other writers and refuse to cite biblical or Church sources to support their arguments. If a writer will steal someone else’s work without credit then that writer is not an ethical person. Therefore, the writer has no credibility when discussing ethical issues. The OTSA statement is morally bankrupt, as the authors relied on plagiarism to make an argument about ethics.
In OTSA’s addendum, the self-proclaimed “Orthodox theologians” rely not on any Church or biblical sources, but on the secular CDC to construct COVID-19 reccomendations:
If individuals wish to use science and secular institutions that profit from the murder of babies as justifications for real-world decisions, those individuals lose all rights to publicly claim they are Christian. Individuals lying about being Christian while writing about theology and ethics are not just heretics, but deceivers actively working with satanic and demonic forces to attack The Church. The devil is the father of lies. Those who present other people’s work as their own are liars. Thus, the authors of this statement are more akin to spawns of satan than children of God (although repentance is always an option!).
Following the tactical destruction of the OTSA’s statements, Archpriest Webster includes several statements from Orthodox Hierarchs and Synods who oppose the use of COVID-19 vaccines and then addresses the potential development of COVID-19 vaccines that have no connections to abortion or fetal cell lines.
Archpriest Webster closes his essay with practical, uncontradicted, and theologically sound advice for Christians:
“We must reject, on moral grounds, all COVID-19 vaccines that have any connection to aborted preborn baby cells or cell lines…Time and distance are irrelevant to profiteering from such abominations for any reason, including the possible saving of human life in the present or the future. According to traditional Orthodox moral theology beginning with several biblical proscriptions- namely, 3 John 11 and Romans 12:17, 12:21, and 3:8- certain actions (“means” to “ends”) are objectively or intrinsically evil under any “circumstances,.” (Webster, p. 164).”
“There is no ‘lesser evil’ that is tolerable to achieve a ‘greater good (Webster, p. 165).”
“Orthodox Christians ought to champion the divinely revealed truth that our life on earth is not all that God the Holy Trinity has given us. This life is preparation for ‘the life of the world to come’…Are we so fearful of physical death that we would do anything to prolong our lives on this earth: compromise our conscience, justify all manner of evil actions, sacrifice others, or willfully benefit from the unjust sacrifice- including murder - of others including preborn children? Have we forgotten since the last Pasha how St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople at the turn of the fourth century AD, exhorted us on that the greatest feast of Church feasts, ‘Let no one fear death, for the death of the Savior has set us free (Webster, p. 174)!”
This writer would argue the natural extension of Archpriest Webster’s position is that Orthodox Christians must reject everything connected to abortion in fetal cell research, including the institutions that allow, fund, and actively participate in fetal cell research and fetal cell cultivation. This likely means rejecting many medical interventions in modern America. But how can a Christain trust a doctor to preserve life when the medications the doctor prescribes exist because a child was murdered? Life can not be created from death. No scientist has yet created something from nothing. No scientist has yet raised the dead nor replicated a fraction of the miracles Christ performed in His short time on earth. A medical system that demands their cures must come from murdering children does not value human life. If a baby is the most innocent form of life and doctors can sleep at night knowing their cures are largely the result of infanticide, do you think doctors will ever care about preserving your life more than the research value they can extract from your body?
And why are companies not disclosing on their products that fetal cell research was used to create their products? Is it because it would hurt their profits? If so, then is this not fraud? A company that withholds information that is pertinent to the consumer in order to profit is engaging in racketeering and fraud. If doctors and pharmaceutical companies truly believed fetal cell research is ethical, why do they not disclose it to each consumer of each product they prescribe and/or sell that uses fetal cell research? If their arguments were strong, why so much effort to avoid informing people of how many medications and products utilized fetal cell lines and research?
Corporations are not ethical. They will knowingly sell products, like cigarettes and alcohol, that will kill their customers because it pays for their country club memberships and private jets. If corporations will sell products they know will kill and harm consumers, is it ethical to support them in any manner? By extension, if our medical system is so deeply rooted in corporate stakeholders and driven by corporate and government agendas, are these corporate medical systems ethical for anyone to use? An industry built on selling deadly products developed by testing these products on fetal cells probably isn’t going to provide a magical, free solution to save mankind from a deadly invisible enemy. Because their products require the murder of innocent life. And if that’s what sustains their business, why would they care about whether any customer lived or died?
If a doctor vows to “do no harm,” then can any doctor that prescribes medications connected to fetal cells be considered ethical? Because abortion does harm. The same scientists who spew evolutionary theory can’t explain why, if abortion was necessary for survival, humans haven’t evolved to have the ability to naturally induce an abortion. One could argue vaccination also undermines the theory of evolution scientists defend with zeal, as vaccines seek to ensure the weakest survive while “Darwin’s theory of evolution” argues the fittest will always survive. Science, with its dogma of playing god in a lab, is the embodiment of cognitive dissonance: they believe man evolved from monkeys because species adapt to survive yet insist on creating ways to intervene and stop natural selection and survival of the fittest. Is it not insane that the entire field of science seeks to do something science claims is not possible?
So the medical community and “The Science” are both embodiments of cognitive dissonance. Doctors vow to do no harm but benefit from abortion while The Science thinks humans evolve to adapt to their environment yet focus on changing the environment to change the human or changing the human to change the environment.
The truth is uncontradicted while lies are always contradicted by facts. While not all doctors or all pharmaceutical employees are evil or immoral, their entire industries are morally bankrupt. These industries will not change until people refuse to enrich these entities. And that will be a terrifying thought for Westerners accustomed to a consumerist society where for every problem, someone has a solution for sale.
These changes will not happen overnight. But ethical people, even those who are not Christian, must walk away from the medical and pharmaceutical sectors entirely (when possible, obviously emergencies happen!). That means not buying products or seeing doctors who support the use of fetal cell line research or abortions. That means developing ethical alternatives to current hospital systems and drug companies.
Christians need to remember that Christ is the Physician and The Church is the hospital. The medical system needs customers. And like any industry, they must convince you to consume their products. And that is why there are so many commercials about obscure medical conditions that will be resolved with medications. If those selling snake oil medical solutions can not convince you that you are sick, guess what? They have no customers.
That doesn’t mean the illness isn’t real. But from a proper Christain worldview, all physical and mental ailments are spiritual issues. Christ healed lepers and raised the dead. And many Apostles, Saints, and monks likewise performed wondrous acts of healing and resurrection. This is a process and we will all stumble and fall at times, which is why humility and a willingness to repent are essential to walking this narrow path. This requires unwavering faith. And it requires you to believe with everything that you are that God can and will heal you. It means praying to God before calling a doctor or googling your symptoms when you are sick. It means having no doubt that calling upon God will work. It means knowing your prayers are not only heard but are granted every day. It means making a conscious effort to be more loving in everything you do. That means waving and smiling at strangers, holding the door open for others, and complimenting random people. It means choosing not to insult others or to spread negativity. And it means embodying the One Commandment of Love in everything you think, speak, and do. This is not easy in a world ruled by the Evil One. But you, my dear brother or sister, are not of this world. And like Christ, you will be attacked and persecuted. And that is why you must never forget Christ already conquered death. God already won. The chaos in the world is the last grand tantrum thrown by those who have chosen the father of lies and rebellion as their own.
There is nothing to fear except for God. Because none of us are worthy of His love and yet we exist. He chose to be murdered by a rabid crowd falsely accusing Him of treason. Because He loved us and chose to die for us to show us we have been freed from the curse of the law and of death. A Christian can not compromise with evil because Christ never did. Despite knowing He would be murdered, Christ repudiated the hypocrites and the corrupt and died for the truth.
God does not expect perfection or for us to be martyrs. He does expect that when confronted with even the most painful truths, we do not back down and cower in fear. He expects us to carry our cross, which is exactly what Christ did. It may mean changing your doctor or researching each medication you use to see if it is connected to fetal cell research. It may mean sacrificing things you enjoy. And it may mean the loss of money, friends, and family. But what is it to gain the world and all its riches if you lose your soul in the process?