COVID-Abortion Vaccine: Christian Responses (Church Member)

There is a vast array of moral issues surrounding the COVID–19 vaccine and its distribution by the government involving such concerns as the justness of government mandates, the safety, effectiveness, and even the necessity of the vaccine, and its connection to abortion. The very nature and diversity of these concerns demonstrates that scientifically minded and sincere Christians who are not antivaxxer fanatics have legitimate worries about the vaccine. Among these objections to the vaccine, the most important for Christians is the vaccine’s connection to abortion. At this point in the course of the pandemic, the most important concern is not whether one should take or not take the vaccine, most believers in western countries probably already have, but rather the vaccine’s connection to abortion is a reminder to engage in the ongoing fight to change the laws and policies governing the biotech and pharmaceutical industry’s use of abortion byproducts in the manufacture of consumer goods. Unfortunately, Christian responses to the vaccine have been largely rational rather than biblical and based on deficient modern and postmodern ethics and consequently unsatisfying.

In response, the main point of this lecture is to use biblical-premodern character ethics for a Christian response to the vaccine. This thesis is developed in four points. First, key verses are reviewed reminding believers of the biblical basis for the immorality of abortion and the use of its byproducts. Second, the vaccine’s relationship to abortion and its byproducts are defined. Third, two popular biblical justifications respectively for taking and not taking the vaccine are evaluated and rejected and a more satisfactory character ethics response for both positions is offered. Finally, practical applications for how the believer and the church may work to change the laws and policies governing the biotech and pharmaceutical industry’s use of abortion byproducts in the manufacture of consumer goods are presented.

This video was made prior to the advent of Novavax and consequently does not take that into account. Novavax is a traditional vaccine that does not seem to have the same ethical issues as the other COVID-19 vaccines since it was made without using stem cell lines.