In 1880, The Vaccination Inquirer and Health Review reports on Reverend George Litten, who refuses to obey a mandate to harm his children with vaccination — which he rightfully understands as a “cruel and unnatural practice.” For Litten, obedience to civil government is only warranted when its laws “are in harmony with the laws of God.” This brings to mind the Sixth Commandment — “Thou shalt not kill” — as well as the Scripture “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29b, ESV)
The author of this report hoped that Litten’s example would be contagious, and so do I — that clergy and non-clergy alike in the church will speak out and oppose vaccination. This would surely lessen vaccine genocide in the church, the nation, and the world.
From The Vaccination Inquirer and Health Review (1880):
REV. GEORGE LITTEN, PRIMITIVE METHODIST, BRINKWORTH.
Much interest has been excited in Wiltshire by the refusal of Mr. Litten to have his children vaccinated, or to pay the fines and costs imposed by the Malmesbury bench. Mr. Litten has vindicated his position in the North Wilts Herald and in a tract wherein he sets forth “a few reasons why he cannot allow the doctor to pollute his children by the cruel and unnatural practice of vaccination.” The duty of obedience to the law is an ever ready argument wherewith to constrain “a minister of the Gospel,” but Mr. Litten replies —“I can obey the laws of my country only so far as they are in harmony with the laws of God, and when any law interferes with my duty to my family or my God, I feel no longer compelled to obey it; and this law of compulsory vaccination unquestionably comes into collision with both.”
Herein is Mr. Litten justified to the uttermost, and we trust that his good example may be widely contagious. It is only through persistent and inflexible resistance that the evil law can be overthrown, and we spare no pains to excite and encourage such resistance.
The Vaccination Inquirer and Health Review, no. 12 (March 1880). In The Vaccination Inquirer and Health Review: Volume the First: April 1879 to March 1880 (London: Edward W. Allen, 1880), 188.
Vaccination — “the people hate it”
As published in the Bristol Observer (Feb. 21, 1880), a one R. Bray discusses the situation of Rev. Litten, and goes on to talks about why the people hate vaccination.
Gentlemen, The case of the Rev. G. Litten is one among many that are most painful in connection with the vaccination laws. For a minister of the Gospel to appear in a police court in order to oppose a law of his country appears inconsistent, no doubt; but there have been and there are times which render such the only possible course. So it was when the Tests and Corporation Acts were in force. So it was when Chu[r]ch rates were compulsory. Then, those who conscientiously resisted the law were called hard names; yet one by one wiser legislators abrogated those laws. No one now blames those who so nobly fought for their right, albeit they figured in police courts and suffered imprisonment.
But, how do we account for their resistance? Were they disloyal to the throne? wanting in patriotism? lovers of rioting and disorder? No one will say that they were. The fact was the Legislature had overstepped its lawful functions-had trespassed on people’s consciences and the Nonconformist said “I am a Christian first and a British subject after.” Now, it appears to me, the Legislature has gone beyond its proper domain in the enactment of the present vaccination laws. It has encroached upon the rights and authority of the parents, and a parent has a right to assert his position.
I do not know Mr. Litten, but it appears to me he is right in taking his stand and saying “I am a father first and a British subject after.”
Our vaccination system is condemned or distrusted by scores of our most skilful medical practitioners, and as a minister of extensive observation and experience, I can testify that the people hate it. Scores of children suffer frightfully from it-worse than from smallpox. Many have died from it, and in every such case it is a sure preventive from small-pox. Of this I am quite convinced, that, if the deaths resulting directly after vaccination were honestly added to the list of those who die from small-pox after having been vaccinated, the remedy would be seen to be like swallowing a wasp to prevent it going down your throat.
R. Bray, Bristol Observer, Feb. 21, 1880, in National Anti-compulsory-vaccination Reporter, Vol. IV, No. 7, April 1, 1880, in National Anti-compulsory-vaccination Reporter, Vol. IV, 115.
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