{"id":53995,"date":"2021-03-15T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=53995"},"modified":"2021-03-12T12:50:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T17:50:34","slug":"why-wont-evangelicals-get-the-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2021\/03\/why-wont-evangelicals-get-the-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Won’t Evangelicals Get the Vaccine?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We got our second vaccine last week, so now we are feeling bulletproof.\u00a0 The chance of our dying or even being hospitalized from COVID-19 is now pretty much zero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But lots of my fellow conservatives and fellow conservative Christians are refusing to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n

In fact, white evangelicals are the demographic that is most resistant<\/a> to getting the vaccine.\u00a0 Only 54% say that they will take the shot, while 45% say that they definitely or probably will not<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0(Overall, 69% of Americans<\/a> say they will get vaccinated.)<\/p>\n

\n

We hear a lot about Black Americans who are, as they say, \u201cvaccine hesitant,\u201d but their rate of refusal is only 33%.\u00a0 Among Catholics, 77% plan to get vaccinated, with only 22% refusing to.\u00a0 A distant second to evangelicals in their refusal rate to get vaccinated are the Nones, those with no religious beliefs at all, with 36%.\u00a0 Who would have expected those who groups to have that level of consensus?<\/p>\n

From what I can tell, there are legitimate reasons, debatable reasons, bad reasons, and one good reason why many\u2013though not a majority of conservative Christians don\u2019t want to get the shot.\u00a0 But there is also a theological reason that needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, a whole \u201canti-vax\u201d movement that, for various reasons, opposes vaccines and has been opposing them for some time.\u00a0 There is also a strain of thought that denies that the COVID-19 epidemic is real or is all that serious.\u00a0 Let\u2019s set aside the merits of these positions.\u00a0 The question still remains, why do so many evangelicals agree with these ideas?<\/p>\n

According to the Pew study<\/a>\u00a0 that is the source of much of this data, the two biggest reasons for vaccine hesitancy are fear of side effects (72%) and concern that the vaccine was developed too quickly (67%).<\/p>\n

And the issue is not just religious, but also political.\u00a0 Another poll<\/a> found that the biggest demographic of vaccine resistance comes from white Republicans<\/em>\u00a0 (which, of course, includes many white evangelicals).\u00a0 Of this group, 36% say definitely that they will \u201cnever\u201d get the shot.\u00a0 (The 45% of evangelicals include those who say they \u201cprobably\u201d won\u2019t get it.)<\/p>\n

One factor often cited in being resistant to the vaccine\u2013though not surveyed in these studies, as far as I can tell\u2013is not trusting the government.\u00a0 I can understand that.<\/p>\n

But the development of this particular vaccine was one of President Trump\u2019s greatest accomplishments.\u00a0 His \u201cOperation Warp Speed\u201d poured money into the development of anti-COVID vaccines and streamlined the regulations so that a process that normally takes many years was accomplished in one.\u00a0 And, contrary to what many people assume, it did NOT cut down the testing and scientific approval necessary to assure vaccine effectiveness and safety.\u00a0 So, despite President Biden trying to take all the credit, as even liberal media<\/a> is acknowledging, these are Trump\u2019s vaccines.<\/p>\n

Our now-Vice-President Kamala Harris<\/a> said that she wouldn\u2019t take the vaccine if Trump said to.\u00a0 \u00a0But why are Trump supporters<\/a> among the most reluctant to accept Trump\u2019s greatest achievement?<\/p>\n

One good reason not to get the vaccine is pro-life concerns, though I don\u2019t think they necessarily apply.\u00a0 Vaccines are often manufactured using stem-cells from aborted fetuses, though these are not in the shots themselves.\u00a0 Some COVID vaccines are made in this same way.\u00a0 But, significantly, the most widely-available and the most effective vaccines in the United States today, the ones by Pfizer and Moderna, did not use<\/em> aborted stem cells.<\/p>\n

The one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot did use them.\u00a0 So did Astrazeneca.\u00a0 But not Pfizer or Moderna.<\/p>\n

Aborted stem-cells were used to test these vaccines.\u00a0 But that kind of testing can be used on all kinds of medicines and other products, but that does not necessarily implicate the products themselves.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Charlotte Lozier Institute<\/a>\u00a0, a pro-life medical foundation, has done extensive research on this question and has published a comprehensive guide to the vaccines<\/a>.\u00a0 Moderna and Pfizer are both given \u201cgreen lights,\u201d indicating that they are acceptable from a pro-life point of view.\u00a0 Others are not.\u00a0 The Lozier Institute also looks at the host of vaccines<\/a> currently in various stages of development, identifying some that do not involve any stem-cell use at all.\u00a0 (These include, interestingly, the vaccines from China!)<\/p>\n

But the debates also raise some important theological issues.\u00a0 We\u2019ll discuss those tomorrow!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image by\u00a0Gerd Altmann<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evangelicals have the highest rate of hesitancy to get the COVID vaccine than any other demographic. Why is that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":54116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,27,30,40,42,44],"tags":[9380,10529,10586,10583],"class_list":["post-53995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-government","category-life-issues","category-medicine","category-science","category-social-science","category-technology","tag-coronavirus-epidemic","tag-covid-19-vaccines","tag-evangelicals-and-covid-19","tag-vaccine-hesitancy"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Won't Evangelicals Get the Vaccine?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evangelicals have the highest rate of hesitancy to get the COVID vaccine than any other demographic. 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