Some Evangelicals Who Oppose the Vaccine

Demonstrators at the CDC in Atlanta

Tyranny disguised as safety?

How about vaccine openly asserted as safety?

Some Evangelicals refuse to take the COVID vaccine for religious and/or personal freedom reasons. The New York Times writes:

Stephanie Nana, an evangelical Christian in Edmond, Okla., refused to get a Covid-19 vaccine because she believed it contained “aborted cell tissue.”

Nathan French, who leads a nondenominational ministry in Tacoma, Wash., said he received a divine message that God was the ultimate healer and deliverer: “The vaccine is not the savior.”

Lauri Armstrong, a Bible-believing nutritionist outside of Dallas, said she did not need the vaccine because God designed the body to heal itself, if given the right nutrients. More than that, she said, “It would be God’s will if I am here or if I am not here.”

There are about 41 million white evangelical adults in the U.S. About 45 percent said in late February that they would not get vaccinated against Covid-19, making them among the least likely demographic groups to do so, according to the Pew Research Center.

“If we can’t get a significant number of white evangelicals to come around on this, the pandemic is going to last much longer than it needs to,” said Jamie Aten, founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, an evangelical institution in Illinois.

But other influential voices in the sprawling, trans-denominational movement, especially those who have gained their stature through media fame, have sown fears. Gene Bailey, the host of a prophecy-focused talk show on the Victory Channel, warned his audience in March that the government and “globalist entities” will “use bayonets and prisons to force a needle into your arm.” In a now-deleted TikTok post from an evangelical influencer’s account that has more than 900,000 followers, she dramatized being killed by authorities for refusing the vaccine.

“Fear is the motivating power behind all of this, and fear is the opposite of who God is,” said Teresa Beukers, who travels throughout California in a motor home. “I violently oppose fear.”

Ms. Beukers foresees severe political and social consequences for resisting the vaccine, but she is determined to do so. She quit a job at Trader Joe’s when the company insisted that she wear a mask at work. Her son, she said, was kicked off his community college football team for refusing Covid testing protocols.

“Go ahead and throw us in the lions’ den, go ahead and throw us in the furnace,” she said, referring to two biblical stories in which God’s people miraculously survive persecution after refusing to submit to temporal powers.

Jesus, she added, broke ritual purity laws by interacting with lepers. “We can compare that to people who are unvaccinated,” she said. “If they get pushed out, they’ll need to live in their own colonies.”

A combination of irrational fear, ignorance, sincere religious belief and crackpot conspiracy theory team up to cause more damage to America's already badly damaged society. Some do not trust science, but they trust God. Maybe some of these folks are unaware that their immoral, irresponsible behaviors will needlessly cause some innocent people to die and needlessly cause more economic loss to the economy. Maybe they have been told but either don't believe it or don't care enough to change their opposition to the vaccine. 

Questions: Is it unfair, irrational and/or unreasonable to consider people who refuse to take the vaccine to be acting immorally and irresponsibly? Is it counterproductive to even criticize such behavior and instead just let people do what they want? What about the innocents that will inevitably get sick and die after getting COVID from an Evangelical who could have been vaccinated but refused, e.g., is that negligent manslaughter? Do the fears of some Evangelicals about tyranny at bayonet point or thrown into the furnace or lion's den make any sense, or is it just another toxic manifestation of the Christian Persecution Myth and merely figurative speech and belief? Is it time for America to revoke tax breaks, worth at least $82 billion/year (my guess is at least ~$100 billion/year), for religious organizations?

"The Vatican has said that vaccines are “morally acceptable,” and Catholics in 

America are much less likely than white evangelicals to say they won’t get vaccinated.

Pope Francis visited a vaccination site in the Vatican on Friday."