Vaccine Mandates

First, I think it’s worth noting that the topic under discussion was supposed to be private sector. I don’t think anybody had suggested a moral requirement to get vaccinated for such reasons. So far as I can tell we aren’t discussing the private sector at all anymore, so I’ve moved us to the vaccine mandate topic you started.

You think that any time a command is given that is tyrannous that the only moral thing to do is to disobey? Absurd. You contradict this idea yourself:

It is precisely for this reason that I’ve been opposing you and others saying things like “Resistance to tyranny is obedience God.” You claimed I was misunderstanding in the past, but now here you are saying that it’s impossible to obey a tyrannical command without being immoral in the process. If you are confused into thinking precisely what the words mean, in spite of your claim that it means something else, I think it’s fair to say that I can take the statement at face value.

As to your second question:

It seems, given the immediate context that you are simply restating your previous question—meaning it is immoral to obey. If so, as I said above, this is wrong. I would ask you to demonstrate such from Scripture. If you mean it is immoral for the magistrate to be tyrannical, of course, but then your second question doesn’t build on your first question and I don’t understand why you’re asking.

It’s actually quite easy for most people to see how a law forbidding prayer is tyrannous and that obeying it is immoral. It’s equally clear that a law requiring your niece to marry the king is tyrannous. It’s a lot less clear that obeying is immoral in this case. It’s also clear that it is tyranny for a soldier to require a man to stop his work and carry his equipment for him. We also know quite clearly that obeying is not immoral. Or tax collectors collecting too much. Tyrannous. Giving them what they demand? Not immoral. Trying to avoid giving them the extra? Also not immoral.

It seems you cannot abide any answer besides “every tyrannical command must be disobeyed” or “every tyrannical command must be obeyed.” My answer was that it depends on the command, but that we ought to start with the understanding that submitting is better, if possible, for the reasons laid out in the Magdeburg, which I plan to talk about more later.

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