COVID-19 “Vaccine” Exemption Forms and Other Helpful Links

The following form is downloadable and can be used to request a religious exemption from an unethically sourced COVID-19 therapy.


Savorless Salt

A recent article by Larry Alex Taunton over at The American Spectator is well worth reading:

If abortion, infanticide, violence in our streets, election-rigging, and the evils of Marxism aren’t enough to rouse some churches, for what purpose do they exist?

Larry Alex Taunton

Mr. Taunton does a superb job of showing how the Religion of Wokeness has invaded the ministries of influential leaders like Tim Keller and John Piper.

It’s reminiscent of what the prophet Isaiah wrote:

10“Israel’s watchmen are blind,
they all lack knowledge;
they are all mute dogs,
they cannot bark;
they lie around and dream,
they love to sleep.
11They are dogs with mighty appetites;
they never have enough.
They are shepherds who lack understanding;
they all turn to their own way
each seeks his own gain.”

Isaiah 56:10–11, NIV 1984

The Ethics of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine

As you consider your options in the fight against COVID-19, you may want to consider the article “Measuring Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine: Now’s the Time to Press Hard for Ethical Options” by Stacy Trasancos. It’s available in full here.

It begins: “Despite reports that Moderna’s vaccine has no connection to fetal cell lines from elective abortions, the creation of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine isn’t so morally clear cut.”

Further on, Ms. Trasancos notes: “In a patent Moderna filed in 2019 presenting similar technology with mRNA, they repeatedly describe the use of HEK293 cells, including in the development of the lipid nanoparticle delivery system. 

“So, the claim that Moderna’s vaccine is ‘ethically uncontroversial’ because it has no connection to unethically derived materials does not seem to be supported as both the development of the spike protein sequence, the mRNA expression in testing, and the lipid nanoparticle delivery system are described as using the HEK293 cell line derived from an aborted fetus. 

“Instead of assigning this vaccine to a category that suggests no more caution is needed, I think it is better to slow down and look at the big picture. The COVID-19 vaccine is not a vaccine that was produced decades ago. We are not like the parents who sit in doctors’ offices accepting a morally tainted vaccine because there are no alternatives while voicing an objection that goes nowhere. Rather, we are talking about a vaccine currently in development, a vaccine that could be required for the entire population in a year’s time, a new kind of vaccine that has never gone to market before and will certainly undergo more testing and development. This means that we can’t passively accept the possibility of morally tainted work. We need to speak up loudly with clarity and courage about the ethics and insist upon an ethical option. It could redirect this entire issue towards the good.”

For more information, see the full article.

Truly Pro-Life

A column in the Kokomo Perspective on October 21, 2020 says, “When pushed, a politician’s ‘pro-life’ perspective is only a pro-birth statement.” 

If we are to believe this, then are we also to believe that someone who is not pro-life is simply anti-birth? They support the idea that an unborn child is human, they just aren’t in favor of that child being born? What would that even mean?

Clearly, this is not just about birth; it’s also about personhood.

A pro-life person is one who believes that a human is a human regardless of their age.

National Right to Life’s mission is “to protect and defend the most fundamental right of humankind, the right to life of every innocent human being from the beginning of life to natural death.”

A person’s life is an arrow with a beginning and no end. It begins with conception and continues into the afterlife.

Abortion takes a life that God gave to that person and extinguishes it—before her first birthday cake, her first job, her first car, and her first child.

Just last year, Joe Biden was refused communion because of his support of abortion. The Catholic priest who made that decision stated: “Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”

By contrast, Donald Trump was the first U.S. President to attend March for Life—an annual event where thousands of Americans gather together to remember those whose lives have been claimed by abortion and advocate for the abortion vulnerable.

This is how Mr. Trump describes his position: “I’m pro-life, but I changed my view a number of years ago. One of the primary reasons I changed [was] a friend of mine’s wife was pregnant, and he didn’t really want the baby. He was crying as he was telling me the story. He ends up having the baby and the baby is the apple of his eye. It’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him. And you know here’s a baby that wasn’t going to be let into life. And I heard this, and some other stories, and I am pro-life.”

One of Donald Trump’s second-term goals is to “protect unborn life through every means available.” When you help an unborn child, you help her, the generations that come before her, and the generations that come after her. It’s like dropping a pebble into a pool: the ripples go on forever.

Pastor Thinks Abortion is Consistent with Christianity?!

“Don’t follow a man of God or a woman of God more than you follow God, because that man or that woman can go astray…”

Tovares Grey, August 28, 2020, YouTube

Mr. Grey is commenting on the article “Megachurch Pastor: Abortion ‘Is Consistent with’ Christianity and ‘I Will Fight’ to Keep it Legal.”

Candace Owens’ Personal Announcement

ANNOUNCEMENT:

I remember the first time I learned about abortion in school. “It’s a clump of cells until after 3 months” said my obtuse gym teacher turned health instructor.

Fast forward to more than a decade later to my 10 week scan, and I will never forget the feelings I experienced.

I was amazed that our baby already had arms and legs, hands and feet and was dancing around inside me. I was overcome by an inexorable sense of love followed by the powerful realization that I would do anything and everything to protect my unborn child.

But I was mostly astonished that all those years ago in high school, I was lied to. I was brainwashed into believing that it was my body, and therefore, simply, my choice.

Today it’s become fashionable for narcissistic celebrities, to perpetuate such brainwash amongst their fans. Like Miley Cyrus, posing half-naked with her tongue out over a cake that reads “abortion”. Like Jameela Jamil, tweeting to scores of vulnerable young girls about how “proud” she is of an earlier abortion from her teen years. Years ago, I would have thought these women were heroic feminists. Today I know that they are anything but.

And so as I move into this next chapter of my life I want to say this: To all of the young girls who have vocally supported abortion— you are allowed to change your mind. To all the young women who made uninformed decisions to go through with abortions: you are not “murderers” and you are not automatically disqualified from being pro-life. You too can have a change of heart. Education followed by transformation is one of life’s greatest offerings.

These past 5 1/2 months have been a whirlwind. A viral video with over 200 million views, comedians threatening to physically assault me, adult men degrading me because they disagree with my viewpoints on George Floyd, while others have accused me of not “showing up”, not being invited, or not caring enough to jump into the perpetual protest scene.

It is such a relief to finally share the truth.

Life is a miracle. Life is sacred. And when women carry life, we get to become the keepers of some of the Universe’s greatest secrets: beginnings.

Candace Owens, August 28, 2020, YouTube

Let’s Repent

“[I]f my people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
— The Lord, 2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV

We need to repent. Specifically, we need to repent and be healed from the taking of innocent life and the distortion of marriage:

  • murder (infanticide, labeled abortion, was legalized the U.S. in 1973)
  • homosexuality (false marriage, between two men or two women, was legalized in the U.S. in 2015)

Take heart: God hears us when we pray!

March for Life 2020

“It is my profound honor to be the first president in history to attend the March for Life. Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House.”

President Donald J. Trump, 2020 March for Life

Tens of thousands gathered in the nation’s capitol Friday to attend the annual March for Life. President Donald J. Trump shared his thoughts on life, creation, and his commitment to continue fighting for the unborn.

All of us here understand an eternal truth: Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.

When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation. When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family. When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world—from my family, and I can tell you, I send love, and I send great, great love—and from the first day in office, I have taken historic action to support America’s families and to protect the unborn.

President Donald J. Trump, 2020 March for Life

For the full text of the President’s speech, see FULL TEXT: President Trump’s historic 2020 March for Life speech by Life Site News.

For additional details on Trump’s historic speech, see “Trump Sets New Standard For Pro-Life Presidents In Address To March For Life” by Tristan Justice at The Federalist.

The March was covered live by the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

Ashley Bratcher on What Pro-Life Means to Her

By Catherine Yang
Originally published and updated September 11, 2019 in the Epoch Times

Actress Ashley Bratcher had no idea who Abby Johnson was. The role came to her in a completely unorthodox way.

One day, Bratcher received a comment from an Instagram stranger who told her she would be perfect for this part.

“She said, ‘Ashley, I have been praying for you for about this year, and God is telling me that you’re meant to play this role.’” 

Bratcher thanked her, and then ignored it, because it sounded crazy.

“It was the strangest thing,” Bratcher said.

But a while later, the commenter came back around, and told Bratcher she was really meant for this role, and if she could just please take a look.

She relented, and agreed to look at a few pages of the script.

Abby Johnson was funny, witty, and charismatic. From the pages Bratcher had, she had no idea it was the story of a woman who was responsible for 22,000 abortions, and who would do a complete 180 on her position.

Bratcher auditioned for the part.

“I learned that she was a real person, and after the audition, I thought that the character was really cool,” Bratcher said. “So I wanted to look her up and see what she was like in real life.”

“And it was then I heard her testimony for the first time, about what she saw, and what happens during the abortion procedure,” Bratcher said. It hit her, emotionally and spiritually. “I was absolutely floored.”

Ashley Bratcher in “Unplanned.” (Unplanned Movie)

“I knew that this was something that I wanted to be part of, and I wanted to make sure the world heard the story,” Bratcher said. “From that point on, I was really all in, and ready to just take on the role.”

Unplanned

Abby Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood clinic director; she’d worked for the organization for eight years and in that time rose to employee of the year. Later that year, in 2009, Johnson quit.

Not only did she quit, but she turned to a pro-life organization because they were the only people who understood. And then she spoke out about what she had seen, shocking millions with the truth of abortion.

Johnson had been with the organization, recommending abortions to women, for eight years before she had ever seen the abortion procedure take place via ultrasound, because Planned Parenthood didn’t do it that way. It was only when she was asked to assist an outside doctor with a procedure that she saw it take place—and learned it was common that the baby, still a fetus, would jump away from the abortion instruments, before being dismembered and suctioned out.

It turned her worldview upside-down, and was the final nail in the coffin. In press conferences and talks around the country, she exposed Planned Parenthood as an abortion-driven business, aiming to increase their sales, rather than a health provider as it claimed to be. She’s written her story down in the memoir “Unplanned,” and the film “Unplanned” came out earlier this year.

Abby Johnson. (Abby Johnson)

Today she also runs the ministry And Then There Were None, which supports abortion workers who want to transition to other careers.

Johnson and Bratcher didn’t meet until halfway through production, but they talked on the phone and texted constantly and became fast friends.

It was an intense seven weeks of filming.

“I was cast and I had a four-hour notice to get on a plane,” Bratcher said. She had a hundred pages of lines and appeared in nearly every scene of the movie, and she dove right in.

Ashley Bratcher in “Unplanned.” (Unplanned Movie)

Before “Unplanned” Bratcher’s stance on abortion was a common one in the current cultural climate. She personally didn’t want to get an abortion, but didn’t want to stand in the way of women who felt they needed one.

“I wasn’t really familiar with the pro-life movement,” Bratcher said. But in the few days she had to prepare for the role, she was researching non-stop. She watched all sorts of videos and talks, and heard Johnson’s story for the first time, reducing Bratcher to tears.

“It was a lot,” Bratcher said. “It was probably the biggest undertaking I’ve ever had as an actor.”

In the film “Unplanned,” actress Ashley Bratcher plays Abby Johnson, a clinic director at a Planned Parenthood located next door to a religious pro-life charity named 40 Days for Life. Johnson’s encounters with the organization’s prayer group members ends up changing her life. (Courtesy of Unplanned)

The “Unplanned” story put a face on the victim. “Knowing that and seeing that in my research just really blew my mind—to think that I’m my age and I had never known what really happened,” she said.

Another twist in Bratcher’s own story occurred while filming was underway. It was on set when she learned that she was almost aborted herself.

Bratcher had already known her mother had an abortion at age 16, and wanted to share this story she was working on as it was about mercy and forgiveness. But as she was describing the story, her mother broke down in tears, and told Bratcher that when she was 19, and pregnant with Bratcher, she had decided to get an abortion. She was on the clinic table before she had this gut feeling she couldn’t go through with it, last minute, and left.

Bratcher told Fox & Friends she later confirmed the story with her father, who told her that they didn’t think they could afford a child, and couldn’t even afford the abortion. To pay for the abortion, he had pawned a family shotgun—that was the price of her life.

Bratcher is often asked whether she was worried the film would negatively impact her career. Twitter had suspended the film’s Twitter account and revoked its ads, and a number of television networks refused to run its advertisements. The filmmakers have protested the R rating given to the film, which prevents minors from seeing it. But Bratcher says she is fearless, because she knows where she stands.

Despite efforts to limit the distribution of the film, “Unplanned” hit No. 1 in DVD sales on Amazon and received rave audience reviews.

Selfless Love

Bratcher got into acting almost by accident. In her last year at college, she needed to take an elective and chose an acting class on a whim, since she had fun in theater classes in high school.

“It kind of ignited that fire inside of me,” Bratcher said. On stage, she had escaped. She wasn’t Ashley Bratcher, whose mortgage was due and had to go grocery shopping later. She got to tell someone’s story.

Then, out on a date with her high school sweetheart—now husband—at the North Carolina State Fair, she saw a big booth with a sign: “Do you want to be an actor?”

Bratcher signed up, and auditioned for a local commercial—and got the part. From there an agent took her to New York, where she auditioned for a hundred managers and agents, and received over 20 offers.

“It just made me realize, ‘Oh, wow, I can actually do this,’” Bratcher said.

But at the time, it was driven by a desire for fame, and Bratcher, who is competitive by nature to begin with, said she had more or less been living with a selfish mindset. Life was about what she wanted, and what she could get out of it. She moved to New York and lived an emotionally and spiritually exhausted life battling rejection. One acting workshop planted some positive seeds, when she was tasked to write a letter to herself.

She had to write down why she decided to become an actor, and what it meant to her, and what sort of impact she wanted to have with her career.

“That was the first time where I said, ‘I do have a serious, legitimate reason for wanting to be a part of this,” Bratcher said. “From that moment on, I always took that letter to heart.”

“In the last couple of years … I have been able to be a part of stories that I feel give people a sense of hope,” Bratcher said. “I wanted to be part of telling really good stories that did something good for people on the inside.”

Much of this is rooted in Bratcher’s faith, which hadn’t been a big part of her life until she became a mother herself.

“I had my own unplanned pregnancy,” Bratcher said. She had just started acting, with few results, and her husband had graduated college and had a job, but neither really had a career.

“I had to be on government assistance. I had Medicaid, I used WIC; we just couldn’t afford it,” Bratcher said. “But at the same time, we were figuring out ways to solve that problem. And I totally believe in government assistance when it picks people up and gets them on their feet. I think when it’s used appropriately, it empowers people to get back up and do what they need.”

Bratcher needed it for a little over a year, and it helped put her on the right track.

“Having my son, first and foremost, deepened by faith. I looked at this tiny little person, and I just could see nothing but the love of God,” Bratcher said. “I couldn’t imagine loving him so much. And it just clicked with me that if I love him so much, how much more God must love me to be able to hold this little baby in my arms and feel this incredible amount of love.”

It changed her whole outlook on life.

“The most important thing I learned from my son was what it meant to love selflessly—because I had been so selfish in the past,” Bratcher said. At the root of all her choices was pleasing herself; other people weren’t even a consideration. But the moment she understood selfless love, she realized what a shallow life she had been living.

“I had experienced a love that I feel like we’re on this planet to experience. I had felt, for the first time, this very pure and selfless love,” Bratcher said.

“That was a huge spiritual awakening for me,” she said. “After I had him, and I got back into the film industry, I had this sense of faith and identity.”

“I wasn’t looking to anyone for validation, I didn’t need to book a role to feel like I was going to be successful, I didn’t need anyone’s approval to know what my worth was,” she said. “It is critical for me to make sure that I am digging into my faith.”

Bratcher initially never wanted children, didn’t want to be responsible for another life and forego all the travels and experiences and the career she dreamed of. Now she has all of those things, and her son as well.

Bratcher attends the Save the Storks 2nd Annual Charity Ball at the Trump International Hotel on Jan. 17 in Washington. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Save the Storks)

And “Unplanned,” far from ending her career, has opened up avenues for Bratcher to help make a positive impact. She’s done two TV shows and is the lead in a romantic comedy where the proceeds of the film will go towards charity. She recently partnered with Heartbeat International to launch the Unplanned Movie Scholarship to help moms with unplanned pregnancies with educational scholarships.

“A lot of times women choose to have abortions because they don’t have the support that they need or want or desire,” Bratcher said. “They’re told if they have kids they can’t be successful, they can’t finish school, all of these things.”

She wanted to provide an option to solve the problem, such as the scholarship fund that would give mothers financial means to finish their education, and partner with an organization with resources and expertise. Heartbeat International has 3,000 pregnancy health centers and provides everything from parenting classes to formula and childcare.

“I wanted to make sure that I was using my voice in a way that was loud enough to say ‘yes, you can’, and actually do something about it,” Bratcher said.

Life Chain 2019

Sunday, October 6, 2019 | 2:30-3:30 PM
Pick up signs at First Baptist Church (at the intersection of Taylor St. & Washington St.)

Stand with thousands of pro-life individuals throughout the USA and Canada in honor of millions of babies whose lives have been lost to abortion. Pray for people in crisis situations and for our nations. You’ll be a light in a darkened world as you help put an end to abortion through prayer!

  • Signs will be available for pick-up at 2:00 PM at First Baptist Church of Kokomo at the northwest corner of Taylor St. and Washington St.
  • The event begins at 2:30 and ends at 3:30 PM.
  • We will be forming a cross by lining up on the North/South Street Washington Blvd. between Markland & North Streets and the East/West street Jefferson Ave., between Indiana Ave. & Apperson Way.
  • This year we are inviting church leaders as well as individuals to go to our Facebook page and choose a spot on the cross to stand. Tell us the location you have chosen. We are praying that this will be the year that the city of Kokomo will see the longest LIFE CHAIN ever!
  • We will stand with our pro-life signs while we pray silently for our country, our leaders, those who drive by, for women and men who have or will in the future be making a “life decision” and for the pro-life cause.
  • After 3:30PM, please return the signs to the person at First Baptist Church (at Taylor St. & Washington St.), or to Bible Baptist Church, 2635 S. Dixon Road.
  • If you have any questions, please call (765) 210-9367.
  • We hope you will establish a sign-up sheet for your parishioners as well as frequently giving out reminders to friends, family members and neighbors to further encourage their involvement in this very important national event. Each year we are encouraged by the increasing number of motorists and pedestrians who honk or show a thumbs up in solidarity with our message. This is a chance for the church of Christ to stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Will you stand with us?

To learn more, visit Howard County Right to Life on Facebook or email howardcortl@gmail.com. You can select a designated spot to stand by viewing the cross in our Facebook post.  Just select the spot you want for your church/organization/business and reply with a comment telling us your choice. We will post your group on our Facebook page within 24 hours.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call.

Barbara
Life Chain Coordinator
(765) 210-9367

or

Melanie
HCRTL Marketing
(765) 455-8665