This is a review of an article in the Washington Times, written by Mark Kellner.
On Wednesday night, a special conference hosted by Liberty and Health Alliance was live-streamed on Youtube.
The topic was an appeal letter to the Seventh-day Adventist Church regarding vaccine mandates and liberty of conscience. One of the conference participants was Dr. Ben Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
To quote Kellner:
“A lot of people think it’s about vaccines and vaccinations,” he told an online audience of Seventh-day Adventists rallied to oppose such mandates.
“It’s a much bigger issue than that. Remember that many people came to this country early on, to try to escape from governments and monarchs who were always mandating things,” he explained.
Mr. Carson said, “We’re in the process of opening the door for that to occur in this country. And once you open that door, it’s very, very difficult to close that door back again.”
Natural Immunity
“It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that people who’ve had the disease have to undergo the vaccine if they don’t want to,” Ben said. We agree.
Kellner continues,
In December 2020 an official Adventist statement said the church has “no religious or faith-based reason not to encourage our adherents to responsibly participate in protective and preventive immunization programs.”
The church added that “the choice not to be immunized is not and should not be seen as the dogma nor the doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
The “Liberty of Conscience” appeal centers on Adventism’s longstanding interest in religious liberty and freedom of conscience.
The movement has long been noted for its emphasis on civil liberties, often filing friend-of-the-court briefs in free exercise cases before the Supreme Court.
The Seventh-day Adventist church has emphasized health as an important element of our religion. Many of our members opt for a vegetarian or vegan diet, and try to live according to biblical health principles.
The Liberty of Conscience Document
On Monday, Fulcrum7 published the Liberty of Conscience document in its entirety. Here are some excerpts from it,
“Governments, locally and nationally, all around the world, are moving quickly to require or coerce their citizens to take COVID vaccinations. Unfortunately, some of our own Adventist organizations and institutions seem to be following that lead.
Many Seventh-day Adventists—lay people and church employees—have well-considered spiritual reasons for not wishing to take those vaccinations and are longing for their Church to provide the counsel and support they need to honor and protect their conscientious convictions and their livelihoods.
Members are threatened with the loss of their jobs, or with the loss of their right to practice their lifelong professions. College students and even young children are now being threatened with the requirement that they must receive the vaccination in order to continue their education.
While some governmental authorities may offer some exceptions for religious or medical reasons, many others are working to deny them. It is time for our Church to speak clearly in defending liberty of conscience on this matter, and the appeal below is offered in a spirit of Christian concern. Our Church has an obligation to lead in this crisis, not only for ourselves, but for millions of others around the world who are looking for hope. We must provide it.
You are invited to add your voice by signing the appeal below.”
As of Thursday evening, signatures on the Liberty of Conscience Document are in excess of 10,000 and growing rapidly.
You can watch the YouTube video conference here. It has over 14,000 views in less than 24-hours.
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“The greatest want of the world is the want of men-men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall” (Education).