Statements & Letters

Personal remarks from President Harrison about COVID and vaccines

Statements & Letters
Comments (3)
  1. Marla Zeneski says:

    We should not be fearful of things in this life so that we make use of evil: vaccines made with or tested using aborted baby material.

    How can we show we are not if this world if we partake in these evils? Among other things, Christians going to Disney parks – when today’s Disney pushes the homosexual and transgender ideologies! Where do we draw the line on participating in this culture of death and destruction?

    I am afraid that your message, President Harrison, is sadly lacking.

  2. James Gibbs says:

    You said, “We live in disturbing times.” What’s disturbing to me is that you seem to be more concerned about temporary restrictions on worship during a deadly pandemic than you do about whether people get sick or die. How is that “pro-life”?

    You admit COVID vaccines greatly reduce hospitalizations and deaths. Yet you refuse to even recommend Lutherans get vaccinated! You refer to concerns about a (remote) link between vaccines and abortion, but you say you personally got vaccinated. Why not share with us your reasoning as to why you did that? That might sway people on the fence and eventually save their lives!

    Do people realize how many commonly-prescribed and OTC medications are tested on HEK cell lines? Where are the Christian scientists taking kidney cells from a donated miscarriage and replicating the HEK lines in a more pro-life way if this is such a concern?

    I cannot understand why you said death from COVID occurs mostly in those with other health issues. Over 750,000 Americans have died in less than two years! Is the fact that those who died often had other issues supposed to make their grieving loved ones feel better? Plenty of young, healthy people have been killed by COVID, too.

    Why did you say it’s unfortunate the government has the power to mandate vaccinations? Do you realize how many lives have been saved over the last century by mandatory vaccines? Undermining the right of government to mandate vaccines would be acclaimed a wonderful victory by the anti-vaxx movement!

    If pastors and chaplains don’t want to get vaccinated, they should be fired! Every unvaccinated person needlessly increases the burden on our health-care system if they get sick, and increases the chance of an even deadlier variant to evolve. And, frankly, I don’t want an anti-vaxxer as my pastor. What other lunatic ideas does he harbor?

    I have seen LCMS pastors online say things like masking profanes God’s image, social distancing is Gnosticism, worshipping online is not really worship, pre-packaged Communion bread and wine looks like Dunkaroos, they are proud of not taking any COVID precautions, the COVID vaccine is not really a vaccine, COVID is a plandemic, etc. This is scary.

    I am afraid in my own congregation to express concerns about a lack of COVID precautions because of the politics of today. That isn’t good!

  3. James Gibbs says:

    Dr. Harrison, if there are ethical issues with the vaccines, why did you take one anyway? Please tell us your reasoning, so that other people can be reassured and get vaccinated, too. Every unvaccinated person who gets infected, whether or not they get sick, is helping to accelerate the evolution of more dangerous variants and is a threat to the public health. I can’t believe you said “unfortunately” the government can mandate vaccinations. If that power gets undermined by the GOP and anti-vaxxers, a century of progress against disease will be rolled back, and many will get sick and die needlessly. How is that pro-life? I am more concerned about the over 1,000 Americans dying every day from COVID (the overwhelming majority of whom would have lived had they been vaccinated) than I am about an embryo from Europe from 30 or 40 years ago that MAY have died because of an elective (rather than a therapeutic) abortion.