OSJ Statement of the Exercise of Conscience in Matters of Life and Death.

The Orthodox Servants of Jesus

Archpriest Symeon Elias

Statement on the exercise of individual conscience in matters of life and death, health and medical treatment, military service, and conscientious objections. 

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All rational creatures, so to say, human beings, are created in the image of God, and it is to God we owe cognition, reason, and conscience. All requirements of human behavior not proscribed explicitly by Christ's law, the law of love, that strives in faith for personal holiness is the purview of the individual conscience; a rational faculty that is a gift of God to all men. 

We find in the words of the isolated Orthodox Anglican Priest, Rev. John Wesley, a perfect explanation of our stance: 

"Are we to be guided by our own conscience, or by that of other men? You surely will not say that any man's conscience can preclude mine. You, at least, will not plead for robbing us of what you so strongly claim for yourselves: I mean, the right of private judgment, which is indeed unalienable from reasonable creatures. You will know, that, unless we faithfully follow the dictates of our own mind, we cannot have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man." 

No philosophy or ideology or science has the power to void the individual conscience, rightly. We encourage our members to be diligent in the use of medical sciences, therapies, inoculation, vaccines, and dangerous drugs, remembering that "the Body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit." The body is never to be abuse and always to be respected. The person in the image of God should never submit to arbitrary treatments contrary to their rational individual conscience. 

No philosophy or ideology or Doctrine of Nationalism, or Globalist Powers, like the World Health Organization and the National Health Institute, has the power to void the individual conscience, rightly, without violating the human person's natural and God-given rights. We encourage our members to know the difference between science and scientism, the former being empirical knowledge the latter being political mythology. We also encourage our members to be diligent in understanding the doctrine of "just war" and to not engage in conflicts and kinetic actions (use of deadly force) that cannot rightly be justified as genuine protection of the innocent. This extends to those serving as soldiers and police officers. No oath of office can rightly void an individual's own conscience. 

We affirm that our stance as a Religious Body of Conscience is confirmed in international law, according to the Nuenberg Rules for charging and trying War Criminals of Medical Crimes. 

TRIALS of WAR CRIMINALS before the NUREMBERG MILITARY TRIBUNALS: 

Volume II, “The Medical Case”

THE VOLUNTARY CONSENT OF THE HUMAN SUBJECT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. THIS MEANS THAT THE PERSON INVOLVED SHOULD HAVE LEGAL CAPACITY TO GIVE CONSENT, SHOULD BE SO SITUATED AS TO BE ABLE TO EXERCISE FREE POWER OF CHOICE, WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF ANY ELEMENT OF FORCE, FRAUD, DECEIT, DURESS, OVER-REACHING, OR OTHER ULTERIOR FORM OF CONSTRAINT OR COERCION, AND SHOULD HAVE SUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE SUBJECT MATTER INVOLVED AS TO ENABLE HIM TO MAKE AN UNDERSTANDING & ENLIGHTENED DECISION. 

Our Statement is also in accord with other national and international laws.
The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights Article 6 – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 Part 50 – Geneva Convention IV 1949 Article 32 –