08-04-2021, 07:44 PM
kj wrote:
As a Christian, I find it super offensive when people use Christianity to manipulate people, as he is clearly doing. Many, many Christians feel the same way.
However:
(... this despite the fact that the Pope has told Catholics that they SHOULD take the vaccine, even though it may have been developed using fetal cell lines, because the church believes in saving lives... which the vaccines do.)
This is a stickier issue. If you read the whole thing, the Pope said it is wrong, but it may be more wrong to hurt others by not getting the vaccine. He says people should advocate for different methods of vaccine development and production as a way to rectify things. I think this is logical and reasonable, but I have a hard time faulting those who take a harder line, although they ought to take all other precautions (and more).
I think the thing with the Pope, and more generally with Christianity, is actually summarized very nicely by this quote from Gov. Edwards:
“If you’re a citizen out there or you’re a parish president or you’re sitting on a school board or whatever, and you’re thinking, ‘Man I just don’t want to do this.’ What public health expert are you consulting? What epidemiologist are you talking to? What data are you looking at?” Edwards asked.
“Did you hear a word that was said up here about what’s happening in Louisiana? Do you give a damn?,” Edwards said at Monday’s news conference. “I’ve heard it said often: Louisiana is the most pro-life state in the nation. I want to believe that. It ought to mean something. In this context, it ought to mean something."
... if you are pro-life, you should strongly support people getting vaccinated, because it saves lives. And I could agree with the Pope that if there are different ways to develop and produce vaccines, it might be preferable to do that. This being said, there are certain things that you can only do with cell lines, and the only way to make scientific/medical progress is to use those. And as pointed out above, medical advances have often been based on a terrible backhistory of exploitation... but we don't refuse to use the knowledge or advances gained, if they'd help cure terrible diseases and save lives.