Is Ignorance a Moral Excuse to Vaccinate?

Is ignorance of the sin of vaccination morally excusable? That is, is it not sinful to vaccinate someone or be vaccinated if one does not know that it violates God’s law, such as the Sixth Commandment?

This is important to explore, since many deceived by the pro-vaccine narrative sincerely believe that vaccination is an act of love to one’s neighbor.

However — sincerity is not an excuse if violating God’s commands in ignorance are still sinful. And this is actually the case.

For instance, in discussing the Old Covenant, the book of Hebrews refers to “unintentional sins” which required the high priest to make an offering for:

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. (Hebrews 9: 6, 7, ESV)

The book of Luke tells us that those ignorant of their master’s will will receive a beating:

And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Luke 12:47, 48, ESV)

It is important to note, however, that there are levels of aggravation and thus complicity. Here it says that “the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating,” while a “severe beating” is reserved for the “servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will.”

In the Old Testament, we find an application of this principle of degrees of complicity on a societal level:

“If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.” (Numbers 15:27-31)

Whether or not these particular verses are specifically talking about violations of all of the laws of Moses, or particular laws discussed in verses prior to Numbers 15:27-31, it is consistent with the universal principal given in Luke 12:47-48, which speaks to all moral conduct.

And so, disobeying God in ignorance is less heinous than wilfully disobeying God. However, it is still worthy of a beating (even if light). So it is still morally unjustified.

Therefore, vaccination, even in ignorance, is morally unjustified.

I do not say this self-righteously. We all, myself included, are surely guilty of many sins of ignorance. I am just pointing this out to say that vaccination is always a morally serious matter, regardless of one’s sincerity — just as it is always a danger to one’s health, regardless of one’s sincerity.

Of course, based on the levels of complicity in Luke 12:47-48, it is much more heinous to be aware of the evils of vaccination and partipicate in it than to believe it is good or neutral and to do so.

There are doctors and nurses who would inject your children with certain vaccines that they would never give to their own children. Surely within this group, there are not just those who are more or less on the fence but erring on the side of caution (with themselves), but those who know that the vaccine is very dangerous.

And of the doctors and nurses who lost their job over not personally taking the COVID vaccine because they know it is a clot shot, surely there are some who would still give it to YOU if it meant a paycheck and they didn’t have to get the shot.

The guilt of such people is greater than the rabidly pro-vaccine doctor who sincerely believes that vaccines are actually safe and effective.

Levels of complicity in ignorance

However, even within those who are ignorant of vaccine dangers, there are surely levels of complicity.

For instance: on the one hand, there is the young, naive doctor fresh out of medical school (brainwashed by Big Pharma) who only hears about how “great” vaccines are. He has been sheltered his whole life from hearing about the dangers of vaccines. He doesn’t see any reason to independently research the matter.

On the other hand, there is the doctor who has worked long enough to get that first complaint from a patient who suffers after he vaccinates him, but does not seriously consider or research the matter.

In the first instance, the ignorance is due to not having the right information. It might just be “accidental.”

In the second instance, the ignorance is due to choosing not to consider another perspective that might be right. It is willful. The doctor’s dismissal of his patient’s testimony about vaccine harm is contrary to Scripture, which, per the law about the goring ox, requires us to take warnings about danger seriously (Exodus 21:29).

Our legal system says “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Then, there is willful ignorance, which is legally understood as thus:

What, then, is willful ignorance? The Supreme Court noted there is widespread agreement on at least “two basic requirements: (1) the defendant must subjectively believe that there is a high probability that a fact exists and (2) the defendant must take deliberate actions to avoid learning of that fact.” Similarly, as Glanville Williams put it, one is willful ignorant if one “has his suspicions aroused but then deliberately omits to make further enquiries.”

Alexander Sarch, Willful ignorance in law and morality (Wiley Online Library, March 8, 2018). Retrieved April 29, 2023, from https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phc3.12490. Quotes from Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 131 S. Ct. 2060, 2070 (2011) and Williams, G. (1961). In 2nd ed. (Ed.), Criminal law: The general part. London: Stevens & Sons, 157, respectively.

Willful ignorance may be fostered by particular sins that increase its aggravation. In the case of vaccines, it might be idolatry (refusing to question vaccines because they are seen as infallible), greed (not wanting to know that vaccines are deadly because one profits from them), pride (not wanting to be wrong about vaccines), indifference (out of a seared conscience), etc.

The following from Upton Sinclair captures how money, even “job security,” can motivate us to ignorance; consider this when we think of the multitude of doctors and nurses who miss the obvious about vaccination:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Or, as Scripture warns judges, bribes have a blinding effect. Relevant for considering the money vaccine companies pay politicians for campaigns, the media for advertising, etc.:

And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. (Exodus 23:8)

When one has a motive to remain in ignorance on a moral matter, it doesn’t seem much less heinous than consciously participating in evil. The latter says, “I know this is evil and am going to do it anyway.” The former says, “I know this could be evil but I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyway.”

Our legal system recognizes this possibility:

In criminal cases, willful ignorance is meant to substitute for actual knowledge: When the defendant does not actually know p, but was willfully ignorant of it, courts may treat her as if she actually knew p.

Alexander Sarch, Willful ignorance in law and morality (Wiley Online Library, March 8, 2018). Retrieved April 29, 2023, from https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phc3.12490

The legal system is pertinent here. Not only should those who vaccinate with knowledge that they do harm be prosecuted, but those who are willingly ignorant.

Ignorance can be a useful tool to, so to speak, “lie” without knowing. Hence the term “lying through ignorance”:

Similar to “plausible deniability” used by Presidents. Keep yourself ignorant of the truth so you can lie through ignorance, and look and feel convincing. Important to fool those people who can feel if you are lying, and it avoids the risk of being proven a liar.

whale.to, Lying through ignorance & plausible deniability. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from http://www.whale.to/a/lying_ignorance.html

How many doctors, politicians, members of the media, keyboard warriors, etc., who profit off of vaccines, regularly “lie through ignorance” to us? Such an approach, again, doesn’t seem much different than consciously lying.

And when does willful ignorance end and conscious knowledge begin? Are those whom are still pro-vaccine after being shown example after example of people dying after vaccination in willful ignorance — or pretending that the obvious doesn’t exist?

Fear as an enabler of ignorance

Fear fosters ignorance, including vaccine ignorance.

An example is comedian Jimmy Dore, who initially believed the COVID propganda. He took the COVID shot — from which he “got sick, and never got better.”

Dore explains how fear fostered his ignorance. Had he not been paralyzed by fear, he may never have suffered vaccine harm:

“I was completely propagandized,” he says. “I have a bone condition that I have to treat every day, so I was afraid. They made it sound like if you got COVID, it’s going to go find the most vulnerable part of your body, it’s going to infect it and kill you. So, I was convinced that if I got it, it was going to go right to my bones and kill me.

I was scared to death. So, I knew I was going to take the vaccine — and I was afraid to look into it. This is true, right? Because I knew I was going to take it anyway, and because both of my doctors had told me to take it, because they didn’t know any better. None of us knew at the time that they were suppressing accurate information. I didn’t know that. Neither did my doctors.

Joseph Mercola, How Jimmy Dore Broke Out of the Propaganda Matrix (Mercola, April 2, 2023). Retrieved April 29, 2023, from https://www.thepostemail.com/2023/04/02/how-jimmy-dore-broke-out-of-the-propaganda-matrix

One can also imagine a scenario where parents of vaccinated children choose to remain in ignorance. This is because the thought that you may have harmed or even killed your child though bad medical choices can be extremely fearful. Such is hard to admit to yourself.

But if they really care for their children, such is self-defeating when they continue to vaccinate them.

Those of us who are Christians should be less susceptible to the blinding effects of fear:

The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1, ESV)

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV)

Ignoring the warning within our head

Never disregard our God-given warning system that alerts us to evil — even in matters that we may be more or less ignorant.

This is what I mean. If memory serves me right, I can recall hearing of at least two examples of mothers who, prior to vaccinating their children, felt an internal alarm warning them to refrain. They may have been more or less ignorant of vaccine dangers, but they knew something was not right. But they would vaccinate anyway — and regret it.

Traudl Junge, who was Hitler’s secretary, was ignorant to one degree or another of Nazi atroicities. However, there was a warning within her about working for him, which she confesses to ignoring:

I have learned to admit that in 1942, when I was twenty-two and eager for adventure, I was fascinated by Adolf Hitler, thought him an agreeable employer, paternal and friendly, and deliberately ignored the warning voice inside me, although I heard it clearly enough. I have learned to admit that I enjoyed working for him almost to the bitter end. After the revelation of his crimes, I shall always live with a sense that I must share the guilt.

Spartacus Educational, Traudl Junge. Retrieved August 27, 2021, from https://spartacus-educational.com/Traudl_Junge.htm

Our duty to seek truth

Fellow Christians: we have a duty to seek truth — not to be content to remain in ignorance. Regarding moral matters, this is implied in the Scriptures that speak to sins of ignorance. We need, then, to know the moral from the immoral so we can please God by obeying Him and not disobey Him in ignorance.

We need the spirit of the Bereans in eagerly seeking truth:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11, ESV)

Just as Scripture requires of judges (Deuteronomy 13:14, 17:4, 19:18), we need a mindset of inquiring diligently to determine what is true.

Since truth is important to God, it must be important to us. We must strive to avoid ignorance. In the case of vaccination, it is life and death — innocence or guilt.

We will again quote Hitler’s secretary, Traudl Junge:

Of course the horrors, of which I heard in connection of the Nuremberg trials, the fate of the 6 million Jews, their killing and those of many others who represented different races and creeds, shocked me greatly, but at that time I could not see any connection between these things and my own past. I was only happy that I had not personally been guilty of these things and that I had not been aware of the scale of these things. However, one day I walked past a plaque that on the Franz-Joseph Straße (in Munich), on the wall in memory of Sophie Scholl [who resisted the Nazis]. I could see that she had been born the same year as I, and that she had been executed the same year when I entered into Hitler’s service. And at that moment I really realised, that it was no excuse that I had been so young. I could perhaps have tried to find out about things.

Spartacus Educational, Traudl Junge. Retrieved August 27, 2021, from https://spartacus-educational.com/Traudl_Junge.htm

In a time where many are persecuted for exposing vaccine genocide, how many, I wonder, are at the same time ignorantly taking part in vaccine genocide? Do they have an excuse, or, in the words of Junge, could they “have tried to find out about things”?

Ignorance is not an excuse, but neither is awareness without warning others

But those of us aware that vaccines are evil and for that reason oppose them have a responsibility as well. Do we really love our neighbor? Then we must use our knowledge to warn others. Just as ignorance is not an excuse, neither is indifference. Ignorance is complicit — but so is leaving one in ignorance.

Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
(Proverbs 24:11, ESV)

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. (Ezekiel 33:6, ESV)

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Tagged Christianity, Ethics