Movie Review: VAXXED (2016)

From coverup to catastrophe, the film they don’t want you to see
Produced by Del Bigtree, Polly Tommey, and directed by Dr. Andrew Wakefield

vaxxedWhat hits me just past the credits of this marvelous film is how on earth these hundreds of thousands of clinical cases of autism stemming directly from the administering of vaccines—particularly the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) trifecta from Merck—is somehow NOT a scientific fact. IOW, when one is passing judgment on the value of a medical treatment, why doesn’t one consider its substantial effects on real people as SCIENTIFICALLY RELEVANT?! Real science aims to gibe with the facts of reality, not sweep them under the rug.

VAXXED is a heartbreaking film.[1] The most hardened, unquestioning vaccine enthusiast—not to mention the most passionate advocate of vaccine truth, science, and freedom—will find it difficult not to succumb to tears watching the havoc these substances have wreaked on children and families around the world.

Which is the main focus of the film, it makes two related points: Continue reading

Guest Column: Religion and Conscience are Intertwined

Religious exemptions to vaccines are about the soul’s right to breathe
by Marco Caceres [excerpted from full column here]

a woman in reflectionPeople view and practice religion in different ways. I have always tended to see religion more as a journey of growth in spiritual wisdom—of being open to all prospects for experiencing the creative power of the universe and learning from the teachings of sages, mystics and prophets (both past and present). I have sensed that the journey has been guided by my conscience—that inner still small voice that has often been said to be the highest authority.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.”1 

In one of his many sermons, 19th century Church of Scotland minister Robert Herbert Story described conscience as the “compass we must steer by.”2 He said that even if it is not pointing due north, “we cannot help it: as long as we believe it to be true, and have no means of checking it, we can be trusted to it.”2

Obey your conscience. Be true to yourself and to God’s voice in you, first and before all else. You might mistake the teaching of Scripture: you could not, if in earnest about it, mistake the teaching of the living voice of God within.2 

The relationship between religion and conscience is closely intertwined. However, I had never previously stopped to reflect just how much until faced with the possibility of losing my religious freedoms as it relates to something as deeply personal as bodily integrity. Spurred on and financed by the pharmaceutical industry, the unceasing lobbying efforts within state legislatures in the United States to eliminate religious exemptions to vaccination and the resultant pushback by American families defending their religious freedoms, has put into clear perspective what is at stake here. Continue reading