EDITOR, The Tribune.

The Bahamas Christian Council’s COVID-19 Vaccine Report was recently released. It is evident that many hours went into producing such a concise document dealing with this complex issue, and Pastor Mario Moxey and his Committee are to be commended for their efforts.

My sole, but important, criticism of the Report is that while the most important issue to the Christian Community (the use of fetal cell lines in COVID-19 vaccines) was noted on page nine, the real ethical concern surrounding it was not addressed.

While the Report correctly points out that historical fetal cell lines derived from two babies who were aborted decades ago have been used to create vaccines for diseases, and that those cell lines are used in various stages of the development and testing stages of vaccines, the Report is silent on whether the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines use any of these cell lines in any aspect of their creation.

The sad reality is that, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, both Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson used abortion derived cell lines in their Development and Design, Production, and Confirmatory Lab Tests. I think it would have been helpful to have had included this information in the Report, especially as it relates to the Oxford-AstraZeneca, which is currently being offered in The Bahamas.

Thus, with respect, I think the Report misses the real issue and addresses a non-issue in its conclusion on page 12 (by noting that since COVID-19 vaccines do not contain components of aborted fetus or cell lines those who received COVID-19 vaccines should not be deemed an accessory to an abortion).

The truth is that even if a person knowingly or unknowingly takes a COVID-19 vaccine containing components of an aborted fetus or developed using abortion derived cell lines (from an abortion they had nothing to do with), it would NOT make him or her an accessory to abortion. However, doing so would raise ethical issues. And it is those ethical issues that Christians need to seek to apply biblically grounded ethics to.

Therefore, the critical issue this still needs to be answered in the Christian community locally is this: Is it ethical to develop medicines, directly or indirectly, from any part of aborted babies, and is it ethical to knowingly take such medicines?

May the Lord give his people wisdom to think biblically through these important issues.

Here’s the link to the Charlotte Lozier Institute which I refer to in my letter and from which I obtained the information about the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines:https://lozierinstitute.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-covid-19-vaccine/. The information is on the full chart.

PASTOR CEDRIC MOSS

Nassau,

March 29, 2021.