Jews Warn Welby Not to Scapegoat Unvaxxed

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LONDON (ChurchMilitant.com) - British Jews are warning the archbishop of Canterbury not to scapegoat the unvaccinated after the head of the global Anglican Communion suggested that people who refused to get jabbed are "immoral."  

"The current 'othering' of the unvaccinated precisely reflects the 'othering' of Jews in 1930s Germany," Jews for Justice writes in a letter to Abp. Justin Welby, explaining how the first two years of the Nazi regime in Germany parallel the last two years in Britain.

"People in public life such as yourself who stir up hostility to the unvaccinated are no different from those Nazis who stirred up hostility to the Jews in 1930s Germany," Andrew Barr, secretary of the campaign group writes. 

"You will also be aware that the German churches were conspicuous in their failure to speak out against the crimes of National Socialism. You are repeating that mistake," Barr warns. 

Barr told Church Militant he was "very careful" in his letter "not to make a direct comparison with the Holocaust itself" but to "the events that led up to the Holocaust," which "demonstrate very strong parallels with what is happening today across the world." 

"We need to learn from history. Those people who argue that any comparison with the Holocaust is inappropriate or indeed 'obscene' are being deliberately disingenuous," Barr said, lamenting that he received a "polite fob-off" as a response from the archbishop's office. 

Disturbing Parallels

The Jews for Justice letter notes a parallel between the German Parliament's abolition of the constitution on March 23, 1933 and Catholic prime minister Boris Johnson overriding Britain's (unwritten) constitution and placing the country under house arrest. 

Two years after the Nazis kiboshed Germany's constitution, the Nuremberg Laws excluded Jews from citizenship and introduced a "citizenship certificate" for the rest of the population in order to ensure their compliance with the regime. 

Similarly, less than two years after Boris instituted lockdowns, Britain introduced mandatory vaccinations for health workers and threatened vaccine passports, ensuring the exclusion of the unvaccinated from full rights of citizenship, Jews for Justice explains. 

The Nazis also justified the ghettoization of Jews and their "evacuation" to concentration camps on grounds of public health, in particular the threat of typhus. The same "public health" justification is being used today to restrict the civil liberties of the unvaxxed, the letter adds.  

History Repeats: 'Othering'

Speaking to Church Militant, popular Catholic author Dcn. Nick Donnelly stressed that Jews for Justice was "right to point out the grave dangers of 'othering' the unvaccinated as English bishops following Pope Francis continued to play their part in stigmatizing fellow Catholics who conscientiously refused the abortion-tainted jabs." 

Deacon Donnelly elaborated: 

Their letter of July 30, 2020 stated that all Catholics had a "prima facie duty to be vaccinated" for the sake of society, especially the vulnerable. They went so far as to categorically assert "there is a moral obligation to guarantee the vaccination coverage necessary for the safety of others." 

By expressing it as a categorical moral imperative, in the context of "national security," the bishops made those of us who could not accept abortion-tainted jabs the "other," who were condemned as immoral, selfish and unpatriotic. On the contrary, Catholics who refused the jabs acted from moral principles, often at great personal and economic cost. 

"The pope and bishops have made us easy targets for stigmatization and demonization. They clearly haven't learned the lessons of Nazi Germany," Donnelly lamented. 

On British television just before Christmas, Welby implied Jesus would get a vaccine. "So, I would say yes, to love one another — as Jesus said — get vaccinated, get boosted," the prelate maintained. 

Asked by ITV News if being vaccinated is a "moral issue," Welby, who is widely regarded as the closest ecumenical ally of Pope Francis, said: "I'm going to step out on thin ice here and say yes, I think it is."

Jewish anthropologist Karen Harradine told Church Militant "in many Western countries, the unvaccinated are now a minority group, unprotected and subjected to penalties, shunning, demonization and persecution by State and religious institutions." 

"That Pope Francis and his crony bishops are championing such scapegoating spits on the memories of those brave Catholic priests and nuns who gave sanctuary to Jews during the Shoah," Harradine said, citing the example of Bp. Pavel Gojdic, who warned his congregation of the perils of discrimination and protested the expulsion of the Jews from Slovakia. 

Warnings Against Stigmatization

Meanwhile, Dr. Günter Kampf, from the Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, has published correspondence in The Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals, against stigmatizing the unjabbed.

Kampf observes:

There is increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission.

Historically, both the USA and Germany have engendered negative experiences by stigmatizing parts of the population for their skin color or religion.

I call on high-level officials and scientists to stop the inappropriate stigmatization of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens, and to put extra effort into bringing society together. 

Oxford University bioethicists Julian Savulescu and Alberto Giubilini explain how "vaccination has become such a sensitive issue, it easily triggers the instinct to shame others."

"Shaming others is also a way of signaling our own virtue and trustworthiness. Moralizing about other people's behavior can help us feel better about ourselves," the academics point out. 

"Shaming is a form of vigilantism, a mob behavior. We have moved beyond burning witches or atheists or lynching wrongdoers. We should stop doing these things also in the metaphorical sense," Savulescu and Giubilini plead. 

Last year, Francis railed against cardinals who conscientiously objected to the shot, stigmatizing them as "deniers." 

"In the College of Cardinals, there are a few deniers. One of them, the poor man, contracted the virus," the pontiff told reporters as he flew home from a trip to Slovakia, not naming faithful prelate Cdl. Raymond Burke, who refused to take the abortion-tainted jab.

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