To Advocate for Religious Exemption and Against Vaccine Mandates with Use of Vaccines Decided as Matter of Individual Conscience

WHEREAS, In the beginning, “God created man in hisown image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27), and He reaffirmed this special status after the flood, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Gen. 9:6); and

WHEREAS, The human conscience has always been the battleground over control of the destiny of the human race, starting in the Garden of Eden with God instructing the man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil while the serpent suggested to the woman that they would be like God if only they would eat of the tree in the midst of the garden—which they did (Gen. 2 and 3); later King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bow down and worship a golden image to which they objected and, thankfully, God protected them from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3); when the council in Jerusalem demanded that the apostles stop teaching in the name of Jesus, Peter replied, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29); and finally Paul writes in Romans 14:23, “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin”; and

WHEREAS, The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” such as freedom of religion and freedom of speech, enshrined in the Bill of Rights; and

WHEREAS, The Nuremberg Code stipulates that “voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential” and protects the right of the individual to control his own body; and

WHEREAS, Vaccines are often developed using tissue from aborted fetal cell lines; and

WHEREAS, Vaccine makers are given liability protection from The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. §§ 300aa–1 to 300aa–34) from any injuries that might be caused by their vaccines to insure a stable market supply of vaccines; and

WHEREAS, Vaccine mandates don’t always offer religious exemption nor do they compensate the individual receiving the vaccine against those manufacturing, administering, and mandating the vaccine for injuries the jabbed incur; and

WHEREAS, Many Lutheran pastors have been asked about our Synod’s position on the mandates and for help with religious exemption from mandates; and

WHEREAS, When there is potential for harm, there has to be an opportunity for an individual to make a choice; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod encourage those considering vaccines to proceed only after receiving informed consent regarding use of tissue from aborted fetal cell lines in the development of the vaccine as well as consideration of possible injury from the vaccine; and be it further

Resolved, That the Synod go on record as advocating for religious exemption from vaccine mandates with use of vaccines decided as a matter of individual conscience.