Of Evidence, Ethics, and Education by Rev. Lisa Syke

How does one spark the reforms necessary to protect minds from mercury? Why do the Hippocratic Oath and the Right of Informed Consent apply to all parts of medicine, except vaccination? How do we counter the argument that a mercury-containing vaccine is better than no vaccine at all? In answering these questions, if we limit ourselves to scientific studies or political debates, then we have missed one of our most commanding arguments: the teaching of faith and ethic. While Congress, the courts, oversight agencies, industry and academia have failed to dispatch a real and present danger to the public health, and especially to our children, the community of faith is moving forward at the global level. Learn how the passage of the historic United Methodist Resolution on "Protecting Children from Mercury-containing Drugs" provides parents with a basis for individual religious exemption to mercury-containing vaccines. Based on select federal documents to be discussed, Rev. Sykes argues that the federal government has forfeited its authority on the issue of vaccine safety and asserts that the cause of protecting the public has passed to a new community of advocates, of which you are a part. The story of her advocacy and her son's treatment is part biography, part medical case study, and yet essentially, a tale of empowerment, underscoring the fact that each of us has an enormous contribution to make toward ending the age of "mercurial medicine" and the denial of our constitutional right of informed consent.

Rev. Lisa Sykes currently serves as the associate pastor of Welborne United Methodist Church, Richmond, Virginia. Rev. Sykes graduated from the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar, in 1987, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1990. She was ordained in the Virginia Annual Conference in 1990 as a probationary deacon and in 1992 as an elder in full connection. She has served the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for almost twenty years. Lisa married her husband, Seth, in 1989, and they have three sons: Adam, Wesley and Joshua. Wesley was diagnosed with autism in 1998 and with mercury poisoning in 2000. Since that time, in addition to being a wife, mother, and minister, Lisa has become an advocate for safe, mercury-free vaccines and for children with disabilities. She is president of CoMeD, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to the elimination of mercury from medicine. Lisa is the author of the book Sacred Spark.