sciencephoto.com/media/685996/view/galen-ancient-greek-physician
This month, one of our former
seminarians who had blessed our church with his musical talent each Sunday
during his studies, returned to visit on a sentimental journey, catching up
with all of us who had loved him during his seminary days. He was in healing,
for this past year, his 70-year-old father had died of the Coronavirus’s Delta
variant. The tragedy of this loss heightened when he revealed how it happened.
The family is musically gifted, and his mother was in the church choir. One
day, she and the other members attended practice. Neither they, nor the music
minister, were aware that he had contracted Covid-19’s Delta strain. As a
result, the entire choir came down with the coronavirus. Mother brought it home
and gave it to Father. Neither of them had taken any Covid vaccines. Mother
suffered from the disease and recovered; Father died. Father had been a devout
believer who had nurtured his family in the faith, including this son who was now
serving in a parachurch ministry, with a first child on the way. But Father was
summarily cut off by plague, no longer to see his son using the ministry skills
he helped him learn, or to see his grandchild grow up in the faith. Christians,
no matter how devout, are not immune from disease or from death.
All of us know this fact, or at least we
should, since no one who was born in the 1800s, no matter how pious and godly a
life she or he lived is still alive and thriving among us today. In fact, as of
this writing, according to Google, the oldest person currently alive, when
Google last checked, is “a Japanese woman named Kane Tanaka,
who was born on January 2nd, 1903, making her 118 years and 179 days old as of
June 30th, 2021”
All Christians know from Hebrews 9:27 that what “is destined [apokeimai]
to humans [anthropos] is once to die, and with this judgement. In the
same way [outōs] also Christ once was offered [prospherō] to take
away [anapherō] the sins in many” [Heb. 9:27-28]. The interim question about which most of us wonder is: how long
will we live on this earth and when will we die?
The Apostle Paul took health issues seriously and was deeply
concerned for the wellbeing of his friends (Phil. 2: 25-27). Paul
assumed that, just as no sane person hates his own body but cares for it, a
husband should care for his wife as Christ cares for the church (Eph. 5:29). So
Paul valued caring for one’s own body and those of others. Paul even gives health
advice to the young Timothy, whom Paul appointed to work among the Ephesians, counseling
him, “No longer drink only water, but a little [or small amount, oligos]
wine employ [chraomai] on account of the stomach and the numerous [or
frequent, puknos] diseases.” Ancient medicine may not have known
specifically about germs, but it did observe the value of purification.
Given this perspective, we were initially
surprised to read what seemed to us like shocking news that, in facing the
reality of the devastation of the coronavirus, “White Evangelicals Resist Covid-19 Vaccine Most Among Religious Groups:
Nearly one-quarter don’t want shot, new study finds, and church leaders face
hurdles persuading them.” The Wall Street Journal,
conveying the results of surveys by Public Religion Research Institute and
Interfaith Youth Core, observed, “More than six months into the country’s
Covid-19 vaccination campaign, evangelical Christians are more resistant to
getting the vaccine than other major religious groups, according to newly
released data.” Since, “Evangelicals of all races make up about one-quarter of
the U.S. population…health officials say persuading them to get the shot is
crucial to slowing the spread of the Delta variant fueling recent increases in Covid-19 cases.” Reportedly,
health officials conclude, “White evangelicals are tied for the lowest figure
among groups included in the survey, along with Hispanic protestants, many of
whom are evangelical.”[3]
Sometimes that hesitation turns into outright
hostility, as Maine discovered, when “a national Christian organization filed a
lawsuit against Gov. Janet Mills and several of the state’s largest health care
organizations over Maine’s requirement that health care workers get the
COVID-19 vaccine or risk losing their jobs.” An organization called “Liberty
Counsel,” also representing a church in Orrington Maine, and “an employee of
Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, who …asked MaineHealth if she could
receive a religious exemption for the vaccine on Aug. 17,” and, to whom, “MaineHealth
replied that state policy required that it deny her request.” As a result,
Liberty Counsel explained, “it was representing more than 2,000 health care
workers across the state in the lawsuit,” observing, “while employees can get
out of the vaccine requirement with a medical exemption, there is no religious
exemption in the policy. Liberty Counsel believes the lack of such an exemption
violates federal law,” since “health care workers are protected from receiving
vaccinations they oppose for religious reasons under the Civil Rights Act of
1964” and “The policy also violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.”
The
response of many in the watching world to the exercise of such fervent and
sincere convictions is captured in this NBC News headline: “As Covid cases
surge, unvaccinated Americans trigger scorn, resentment from many vaccinated people:
Hopes are getting dashed for a summer that feels more like pre-pandemic years.
Now, another feeling has overcome many of the vaccinated: contempt.” In this
well-researched article, Erik
Ortiz cites Keisha
Bryan, a psychotherapist near Raleigh, North Carolina, who expresses the
frustration well: “I find myself doing all of these extra things and being
thoughtful, because I learned from my grandmother to not just care for yourself
but care for your neighbor"… "Now I'm getting to the place where I'm
angry — angry that I see other people not doing the same, not getting
vaccinated when they can. Don't we all want to get back to normal?" In a
similar vein, a responder to the article Molly Knight observes that “personal
right” imprisons everyone in this plague, “hurting everyone else. I’m so angry”
(@molly_knight), while Steve Moore expresses his “unmitigated anger” at “the stupidity
and the selfishness” (@Smoore1117). Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey
pleads, "It's the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down…These
folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain," plunging
her state to the bottom of the vaccinated list, while more direct is
Californian Elise Power, who simply confides, "It makes you want to smack
people upside the head."
These vaccinated neighbors speak for countless others both on the net and off.
But in the face of such reasonable and
understandable expressions of frustration and anger, we realize that, while
selfishness and stupidity can be assigned to some of the unvaccinated, deeper
reasons fuel why so many thoughtful people put their lives at risk and refuse
vaccination. What are the reasons they give? Wondering ourselves, we asked
several friends, both evangelicals and Roman Catholics whom we respect as
sensitive and caring people, why they don’t put themselves at safety by taking
the free shots. The answers we were told are provocative and interesting. I
have categorized the responses under five major recurring categories: concerns
about safety, influence of conspiracy theories, fear of inoculations, religious
convictions, and morality issues. And, I end by asking, would physician Luke
take and give vaccines today?
1. 1. Vaccines
in General, and These in Particular, Are Not Safe
There’s nothing like a bad experience to
cool someone’s enthusiasm about experimental drugs. Unexpected allergies can accomplish
that. A dear friend, an educator with a master’s degree, shared this reflection
with us on February 12, 2021: “My parents got the first dose of
the Moderna vaccine. My dad did fine but my mom had a severe reaction. She
fainted, had a high fever, became completely disoriented and vomited. This
lasted for two days. It was very scary. She has recovered now but I am strongly
encouraging her to not take the second dose. Because of her reaction, I have
looked more into the vaccine. The vaccines are still in experimental form. They
are for emergency use and even say on the packaging that they are not approved
by the FDA. They change your body and you can't detox from them. Also, my
friend who is a pharmacist said that people on blood thinners, have diabetes,
or any form of cancer should not get the vaccine. Johnson and Johnson is
working on a traditional vaccine for COVID which is not the mRNA. If you
want to take the vaccine, I would highly recommend waiting until this becomes
available.”
On August 23, 2021, the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine. On December 12, 2020, the Moderna
COVID- 19 Vaccine was issued “emergency use authorization” and, although
emendations were made to its fact sheets on June 25 and August 12, 2021, at
this writing it still retains that status. On February 27, 2021, the
FDA also granted “emergency use authorization,” to the Johnson & Johnson/
Janssen Vaccine.
However, having such a physical reaction in her family
encouraged our friend to explore other means in case she and her children share
the same proclivity for a similar reaction: “As a preventative, we have been
taking vitamin D along with Quercetin, which acts in the body like
hydroxychloroquine with a multivitamin that contains zinc. We have not taken the vaccine and will not get it.”
By August 22, 2021, these convictions had become
family policy: “We feel the risks of the vaccines
outweigh the benefits. We have found that there are very effective treatments
if you do get COVID. These include Ivermectin, and a protocol using
hydroxychloroquine. We make sure we are staying up on our vitamins, especially vitamin
D and C and we also take Quercetin on a daily basis.…I would say in our circles
it is very divided, as some have taken the vaccine and some have chosen not to.”
Such a severe reaction to the vaccine as her mother experienced is
certainly a sobering reaction that must be taken into consideration. At the same
time, factoring into this discussion, is an even more sobering response to
Covid itself. As CNN’s Holly Yan, CNN
reports,
“Young
people can get long-term Covid-19 complications. Young, healthy people have
turned into Covid-19 ‘long-haulers,’ suffering chronic
fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath and brain fog months
after their infection.” In fact,” she reports, “7 in 10 people hospitalized for Covid-19 haven't
fully recovered five months after discharge,” and “A
study this year found that 30% of
people who had Covid-19 still had symptoms up to nine months after infection.” We ourselves know a young
man in his early 40s who apparently contacted Covid in January 2019 when it
first arrived in the USA and has suffered since from residual Covid symptoms
off and on for two years now. Although healthy before, he has been in and out
of the hospital ever since with everything from shortness of breath to
digestive issues. Covid-19’s long term effects are one of the main reasons to
avoid it.
As for our friend, she is, indeed, a devout Evangelical Christian,
but what is worth noting here is her explanation for her family’s motivation:
“Our reason for not taking it is from the research that we have done rather
than for a Biblical reason.”
A non-Evangelical Roman Catholic neighbor and dear friend up the
street also decided to seek out alternative medicine solutions, calling them
“more natural.” Her reasons also were not driven by her faith.
Our well-informed
friends’ hopes for an alternative to the present vaccines, of course, may not
turn out to be merely wishful thinking. At this writing, Florida and Texas are
investigating the use of antibodies to stop the coronavirus’s devastating
effects, According to CNBC’s Robert Towey,
“The FDA granted Regeneron’s treatment an emergency use authorization in
November. The agency said it reduced Covid hospitalizations ‘in patients at
high risk for disease progression within 28 days after treatment.’” And
“GlaxoSmithKline just won emergency approval for its treatment with Vir
Biotechnology in May, saying it reduced hospitalizations and death in high-risk
patients by about 85%.”
This
is an impressive, heartening report and certainly a cause for rejoicing. At the
same time, however, these reports of success are confined to treatment for
those who already have contracted the coronavirus and are not necessarily
preventive drugs to keep one from being infected with this plague. Whether they
can become preventative remains to be seen. For now, they appear to be
operating in a different sphere than the vaccines and are not their competitive
replacement. The vaccines are effective as preventative drugs which can protect
one from the disease or make its onslaught minimal. The antibody treatments are
applied to cases of Covid-19 already inset in one’s body and can neutralize the
disease’s effects. So, the current vaccines and these antibodies treatments may
be regarded, at this point, as companion not competitive resources.
Further, numerous other reasons for a reluctance to take the
vaccines have emerged that have nothing
to do with one’s religion. For instance, Los
Angeles Times columnist Erika D. Smith
laments the fact that “millions
of mostly left-leaning Black Americans — and more than half of Black Californians — remain unvaccinated.” She points out that many minorities are wary of government
intrusion based on a long social history of manipulation and betrayal. As a
result, she cautions, “Let’s not fall into the narrative that all of those who
haven’t been vaccinated are conservative Trump supporters who have been
brainwashed by Fox News.” She explains, “I also can’t merely write off fearful
Black people as lacking common sense when I know that their personal experience
has taught them to be suspicious of authority. Not when I know that, decades
after the Tuskegee syphilis study, Black Americans still don’t receive
medical care on par with white Americans. Disparities abound in everything from
maternal death rates to the treatment of chronic pain.”
No religious
dimension plays into this sobering insight.
One
middle-aged Anglo friend, married to an African nurse who shares his
convictions, seemed to speak for many to whom we’ve talked who questioned the
effectiveness of the vaccines when he put it this way: “Vaccines aren’t safe
and I don’t want to be a guinea pig of Big Pharma!”
Although this
Evangelical does not offer a religious reason for his reluctance, historically,
American theology may well offer a legacy for not trusting vaccines. Most
scholars of all Christian persuasions regard Jonathan Edwards as the greatest
USA theologian. A writer, thinker, pastor, and a forward-thinking missionary to
the Native American population, rare in his time, as missiologist Alex Dodson
notes: “Edwards loved the Indians and sought their good in his ministry
with them. He and David Brainerd had the same outlook and concern for them as
indicated by Iain Murray when he wrote, ‘Both knew that true Christian love is
practical and both cared for the Indians as people.’” Jonathan Edwards
inherited his admiration from “Edwards’ grandfather [Solomon] Stoddard, and his
uncle John Stoddard, both spoke of much that was to be admired among the Indians,
especially their skillful adaptation to their environment. They were good
hunters, farmers, artists, and boatmen, ‘but the chief ornament of them was
their hospitality’ (p. 393 – Jonathan Edwards…). To say that
Edwards cared only for their souls and not for them as people would be an
untrue statement.” Not
only modern in this regard, Jonathan Edwards was a scientific thinker,
embracing new scientific advances:
“Edwards accepted an appointment as President of the College of New Jersey (now
Princeton) in 1757. He died from complications arising from a smallpox
inoculation on March 22, 1758, less than five weeks after his inauguration.”
A resulting fear of such inoculations may not
have entirely calmed over the centuries, especially when being bolstered by
headlines like this one from July 23, 2021: “27 fully
vaccinated people have died in Tennessee, health department says.” According to
Nashville’s WZTV’s Kaylin Jorge, “The Tennessee Department of Health reports 27
fully vaccinated people have died from
COVID-19. These
are among the state's more than 1,000 ‘breakthrough’ cases. These are cases in
which fully vaccinated people have contracted the virus. Data is sent to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. TDH Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey
said Friday more than two dozen deaths since May 1 and 195 hospitalizations
among breakthrough cases. Including dates before May 1, there have been more
than 1,000 breakthrough COVID-19 cases, the state reported. Piercey said more
than half of the breakthrough cases are those 60 and older and of that group
they're most likely to have breakthrough cases, but most have not had severe
illness.”
Or consider this recent CNBC report, entitled,
“CDC study shows 74% of people infected in Massachusetts Covid
outbreak were fully vaccinated.” According to this research, “About
three-fourths of people infected in a Massachusetts Covid-19 outbreak were fully
vaccinated against the
coronavirus with four of
them ending up in the hospital, according to new data published Friday by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The new data, published in the
U.S. agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that fully
vaccinated people who get infected carry as much of the virus in their nose as
unvaccinated people.”
But
a closer examination of the data reveals the onsets were not life-threatening, “Overall, 274 vaccinated patients with a
breakthrough infection were symptomatic, according to the CDC. The most common
side effects were cough, headache, sore throat, muscle pain and fever. Among
five Covid patients who were hospitalized, four were fully vaccinated,
according to the agency. No deaths were reported.”
The encouraging note is that cases of coronavirus in the vaccinated are usually
more mild for those who have had the shots, as noted in this second article,
although, for those over 60 years of age, there is no guarantee in what the
first article reports. However, an even brighter piece of news for the
vaccinated, issued from the CDC on August 13, 2021, is: “Among
adults aged 65–74 years, effectiveness of full vaccination for preventing
hospitalization was 96% for Pfizer-BioNTech, 96% for Moderna, and 84% for
Janssen COVID-19 vaccines; among adults aged 75 years, effectiveness of full
vaccination for preventing hospitalization was 91% for Pfizer-BioNTech, 96% for
Moderna, and 85% for Janssen COVID-19 vaccines.”
In
contrast are reports of regret by unvaccinated victims of Covid, like this Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina woman who experienced a “Change of heart for self-described 'anti-vaxxer'
after month-long COVID-19 hospitalization.” She reflects, “I never
imagined it would happen to me…I was in the hospital twice; very close to being
ventilated…I thought I was going to die. I could not breathe. I could not catch
my breath…I'm relatively young, healthy and work out five to six times a week…I
never imagined it would do this to my body." Although she reports, "I've
always been anti-vaccine, I'm more of a natural health person. I have trusted
my immune system. This has made me question that…My husband did get vaccinated
because of this…I'm definitely hesitant but I'm leaning towards it.” And now
she recommends to others, "Social distance, wear a mask, and do whatever
it takes to avoid this"
In
fact, New York state’s buffalonews.com adds this data: “A
recent survey by ABC News of 17 hospitals in 50 states revealed that about 94%
of the patients in ICUs were unvaccinated. Those findings reflect the national
trend. It’s worth noting, too, that vaccinated patients who get critically ill
typically have other health issues, ranging from immunocompromising diseases to
frailty.
Today,
we are still being assured “the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 95%
effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed infection with the virus that
causes COVID-19 in people who received two doses and had no evidence of being
previously infected.” “The Moderna vaccine was 94.1%
effective,” according to the CDC, Johnson &
Johnson reports its Janssen/Johnson and Johnson vaccine has been demonstrated
as “85% effective,”
although the World Health Organization website still maintains, “The J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine was 66.3%
effective in clinical trials (efficacy) at preventing laboratory-confirmed
COVID-19 infection in people who received the vaccine and had no evidence of
being previously infected.”
Also
worth noting is that scientists all over the world working on coronavirus solutions
new vaccines are being developed. On September 20, 2021, The Times of Israel reported the BriLife vaccine, developed by “NRx
Pharmaceuticals, the American-Israeli clinical-stage pharmaceutical company tapped
two months ago by the Israeli Defense Ministry to manufacture and market the
country’s vaccine developed by the government-run Israel Institute for
Biological Research (IIBR) in Ness Ziona,” is now “in Phase IIb/III trials.”
One thing worth keeping in mind is that
no one to whom we talked who raised the question of being a guinea pig or who
questioned the effectiveness of the vaccines raised any theological dimension that
influenced their hesitation to be vaccinated.
2.
Conspiracy
Theories Have a Role in Avoiding COVID Precautions
When Georgia’s Republican Representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene compared wearing mask rules to Hitler’s requirements of
wearing gold stars, she drew impassioned responses. For example, Ms.
Imran Ahmad charged: “Now, just weeks after she visited the U.S. Holocaust Museum,
Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist, has doubled down on the antisemitism by
calling those leading the federal effort for COVID vaccinations ‘medical brown
shirts,’ a reference to the paramilitary operation that helped Adolf Hitler
take power.”
In response, Marjorie
Greene said, “I have made a mistake and it's really bothered me for a couple
weeks now,’ Greene told a news conference. She added that ‘there's nothing
comparable’ to the Holocaust and ‘I know the words I stated were hurtful and
for that I am very sorry.’"
However, her opposition to mandated Covid protection had apparently not waned,
for a month later she was back in the news, “Marjorie Taylor Greene, Other GOP Lawmakers Sue Pelosi Over Mask
Penalties: The Georgia Congresswoman, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and
Ralph Norman of South Carolina were fined $500 for not wearing masks.”
While her analogy changed, her anti-mask attitude did not. Where did this
originate and why is it so strong that she would risk a fine to reject masked
protection against Covid-19 and its variants and, by example, encourage those
whom she represents to follow suit?
Back in February, a link to a hyper human
rights conspiracy theory movement suggests one possible genesis for her
opposition to government suggestions for restrictions. That month, she hit the
headlines with an explosion. In a spate of interviews from Vanity Fair
(“Marjorie Taylor Greene: I Only Believe Some of What QAnon Says About Dems
Being Satanic Pedophile Cannibals, Okay?”)
to CNBC (“Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene expresses some regret about conspiracy claims ahead of vote
to punish her”) she confided, “she regrets some of the false conspiracy
theories she had promoted in the past, including her expressions of support for
QAnon. ‘I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true and I would ask
questions about them and talk about them…and that is absolutely what I regret.’”
QAnon, a conspiracy theory movement,
had hit prominence during former President Trump’s bid for a recount of the
vote that put President Biden in office instead and the storming of Washington
by supporters wearing everything from flags to horns and Odinist trappings,
apparently fueled by QAnon posts and directives. Although its media presence
has waned,
far from over, QAnon appears in such recent events as an August 31, 2021 QAnon rally in Maine, expressing
itself against the wearing of masks and taking vaccinations, though its impact
was marred by the news that “The conspiracy theorist who organized a far-right
event calling for an audit of Maine’s 2020 election results in Belfast last
month has died from COVID-19. Robert David Steele, a former CIA officer turned
promoter of far-right QAnon conspiracy theories, was hospitalized earlier this
month after he began displaying symptoms of COVID-19 according to Vice News. ‘I will not take the vaccination, though I did
test positive for whatever they’re calling ‘COVID’ today, but the bottom line
is that my lungs are not functioning,’ Steele wrote in an Aug. 17 blog post. A
friend confirmed Steele’s death in a Sunday Instagram post that also suggested
his illness was ‘very suspicious.’”
An interesting addition to the question of
religious involvement in the question of coronavirus protection hesitations is
what appears to be a largely Moslem-scholar-driven survey article on the Plos
One website, which concluded, “Rumors and conspiracy theories, can
contribute to vaccine hesitancy.” The thoroughly researched findings reported,
“We identified 637 COVID-19 vaccine-related items: 91% were rumors and 9% were
conspiracy theories from 52 countries. Of the 578 rumors, 36% were related to
vaccine development, availability, and access, 20% related to morbidity and
mortality, 8% to safety, efficacy, and acceptance, and the rest were other
categories. Of the 637 items, 5% (30/) were true, 83% (528/637) were false, 10%
(66/637) were misleading, and 2% (13/637) were exaggerated.”
Apparently rumors and conspiracy theories are not a unique North American
phenomenon.
3.
“I Don’t
Like Needles”
One friend, a burly working man, confided
to us, “I never use needles.” As pastors for three decades of a storefront
church, working with many generally former heroin addicts, we realize there is
a psychological association with needles that make determined ex-addicts step
away completely from the use of needles. Others who have never mainlined drugs,
like a sweet Latina woman in her 80s, told us, “I don’t like needles. I never
take them.” She is not alone. The BBC reports, “A recent study from the
University of Oxford suggests that a fear of needles is a major barrier for around 10% of the
population.”
When I came across the compendium on invasive experiments on soldiers, inmates,
patients, and others by compilers
Jay Katz, Alexander
Morgan Capron, Eleanor
Swift Glass, Experimentation with Human Beings:
The Authority of the Investigator, Subject, Professions, and State in the Human Experimentation Process (New
York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972), I was struck once again by the
realization that all fear is not necessarily unfounded. The gain from using
needle has to be worth the risk. The gain here is protection.
Once again, there was no religious dimension expressed to us to
explain the aversion or the fear of permitting needles into one’s body. But
this does not mean that we did not finally hear an expression of religious
involvement from any of those with whom we talked.
4. 4. “God told me not to fear”
Our dear Latina friend in her mid-80s who did not
like needles, told us she was confident in her wellbeing because God had told
her not to be afraid. Apparently, she was not alone in her conviction she would
be spared.
CNN’s Holly Yan reports,
“Among religious groups in the US, white evangelical
Protestants stand out as the most
likely to say they will refuse to get vaccinated (26%), with an
additional 28% who are hesitant," according to a study this spring by the
Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core.” She labels this
attitude, “My faith will protect me, so I don't need to get vaccinated.'” But,
at the same time, she points out, some experts say anti-Covid-19 vaccine
sentiment among evangelicals is fueled by a distrust in
government, ignorance about how vaccines work and misinformation.
But
Christianity Today’s Rebecca Randall| and her team reports,
“Evangelicals’ Vaccine Skepticism Isn’t Coming from the Pulpit,” instead,
pastors are noting that members of their congregation not choosing to be
vaccinated lack trust in the government, and “fear of how vaccines work.” While
“Conservative pastors and leaders are encouraging the shot while the people in
the pews have been more divided,” one pastor, Aaron Harris, pastor of Calvary
Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas, explains, “We don’t believe that this
is a scriptural issue; it is a personal issue.” He figures half his
congregation’s more mature members are vaccinated, but the problem is among
younger members. He wisely counsels, “We shouldn’t live in fear of the virus
because we do have a faith in eternity. However, just because we aren’t in fear
of it, where is the line of what we ought to do?... I’m not going to lay down
in front of a bunch of alligators to show my faith in that way.”
Some Christians say they prefer to leave their
fate in God’s hands, rather than be vaccinated. One church member from Missouri
reasons, “Heaven is so much better than here on earth. Why would we fight
leaving here?” Pastor John Elkins of Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Brazoria,
Texas, also observes that “his congregants’ doubts are not theologically based.
‘It’s skepticism about effectiveness,’” along with lack of trust in the
government, and hesitation if vaccines are derived from abortions.
What this tells us and should tell researchers
is that identifying conservative skeptics of the vaccines under the title
“White Evangelicals” is misleading. If their reluctance has to do with other
than biblical or theological reasons then they are simply conservatives. In
fact, they are more likely fundamentalists than Evangelicals who conserve
religion as part of their conservatism, but not necessarily the driving part.
At the same time, as noted, Roman Catholics were represented among our friends
who would not take the vaccines. Some cited in the research are unclear about
their religious affiliation, or are Moslems or Hindus or heterodoxical fringe
groups of any of these religions. In short, if biblical reasons are not cited,
the researchers and the press should simply identify this camp under the title
“political conservatives.”
As for our mature Latina friend, my wife told her,
“Don’t you think that God provided the wisdom to create the vaccines so that
you would be safe?” Like the joke that was so popular several years ago about
the man in the flood who rejected a car, a boat, and a plane and then drowned,
complaining in heaven that God hadn’t saved him to which God replied, “I sent
you a car, a boat, and a plane!” Vaccines and masks and social distancing when
possible appear to be the wise ways to ensure one’s protection today, especially
if one is wise oneself and inquires of one’s medical doctor whether one may
have a propensity or allergy to react against the vaccine being contemplated.
Masks probably don’t have to be checked out, although someone just complained
to us they make one lightheaded since they make it hard for that person to
breathe. I suggested lifting up the bottom in a safe direction to let in a
little air if one has it on too tightly.
5. 5. Vaccines
are immoral since they affect reproduction, change our molecular structure, and
are made from aborted human stem cells
A young, newly married, eye, ear, nose, and throat physician
in the Dominican Republic told us he has had COVID-19 three times, but won’t
take the vaccines because of fear they will affect his ability to have children due to their
rumored ability to change his molecular structure. Reared a Roman Catholic, he
recently married an Evangelical Christian woman and his family’s outlook now
embraces all three objections above. His concern that the COVID vaccines will
affect his reproductive powers are apparently not limited to the Dominican
Republic but this is a major concern among the young beyond its borders.
Nebraska
Medicine’s “infectious diseases expert” Dr. David Brett-Major, MD, MPH tries to
put at rest those with such concerns, when he observes, “The COVID-19 mRNA
vaccines now have been in tens of thousands of people and infertility has not
been a problem for men or women. Twenty-three women became pregnant after
participating in Pfizer's mRNA vaccine clinical trial. Pfizer reported one poor
pregnancy outcome in someone in the control/placebo group – meaning they had
not received the vaccine.”
As for a question our young friend did not ask,
maternal-fetal medicine expert Dr. Teresa Berg, M.D., answered, “In the United States, more than 353 million doses of the COVID-19
vaccines have been given. More than 167 million Americans are now fully
vaccinated. We have no reason to believe any of the COVID-19 vaccines would
harm a developing fetus or a nursing infant. “ And, as for changing one’s molecular
structure, infectious diseases expert James Lawler, MD, MPH explains, “mRNA
vaccines are designed to do their work outside of the nucleus and have not been
observed to interact with the nucleus.” So, “No, the vaccines cannot change
your DNA.
However, the question of using aborted human
cells to make vaccines is a more difficult one for Evangelicals like ourselves
who believe in the right for all fetuses struggling into infanthood and then
attempting to be born to be allowed to do so in safety.
On the third day of Christmas, 2020, infectious disease expert Dr. James Lawler gave this answer: “The COVID-19 vaccines do not contain
any aborted fetal cells.” So, none of us taking the vaccines are receiving
aborted human cells. He adds, “However, fetal cell lines – cells grown in a
laboratory based on aborted fetal cells collected generations ago – were used
in testing during research and development of the mRNA vaccines, and during
production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.” Pointing out that the Vatican
has struggled with this issue and has come to the same conclusion that he has,
he explains, “As a practicing Catholic, I think the moral balance of indirectly
benefitting from an abortion that occurred 50 years ago in order to take a
vaccine that will prevent further death in the community is a no-brainer –
especially considering that so many of the over 620,000 American deaths have
occurred in the most vulnerable and marginalized in our society. We need to
focus on saving lives right now. We need to care for our neighbors.” He notes
that with “Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, fetal cell line HEK 293 was
used during the research and development phase. All HEK 293 cells are descended
from tissue taken from a 1973 abortion that took place in the Netherlands.”
In
Evangelicalism’s most distributed magazine, Christianity Today (CT), Science
editor Rebecca Randall| and her colleagues trace the trajectory of the debate
in its quarters in her insightful article, “Not
Worth a Shot: Why Some Christians Refuse Vaccinations on Moral Grounds: The
use of fetal cell lines from the 1960s is another sticking point in the vaccine
debate.” “Dr. Matthew Loftus in “Why Christians of All People Should Get Their Vaccines” notes an observation by National Institute of
Health director Dr. Francis Collins, who “suggests comparing it to organ donation
after a child was shot.” He reasons, “There was a terrible, evil loss of life
of that child and yet I think we would all say that if the parents decided and
they wanted something good to come of this and gave their consent, that’s a
noble and honorable action.” He suggests a parallel of “a parent, after going
through a pregnancy termination, deciding that they would like the fetal tissue
to actually help somebody.” Dr. Loftus also references “Focus on the Family’s
Physicians Resource Council, which last updated a statement in
2015, [which] suggests that Christians have the moral freedom to receive
vaccines.” He also reports the Roman Catholic Church’s decision was “that those
who receive vaccines are not culpable in the original abortions.” And, he notes,
the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
(ERLC)’s observation that “Pro-life proponents of immunization point out that
vaccines no longer rely on abortion to provide further fetal cells—and that the
initial two abortions were not conducted to supply vaccine makers with fetal
tissue in the first place.”
The
question of the morality benefiting from an earlier evil is always a difficult
one to answer. Particularly, it has been present today as white American males
wonder about the cultural entitlement that has given them opportunities not
shared by African Americans, Hispanics, and women of all hues and cultures.
What is a white male’s responsibility here? Is it to step back and forgo any
opportunity based on privilege, or to use one’s opportunities to reach out and
help others succeed? The latter path seems straighter to doing something
worthwhile than simply dropping out of society.
If
we Christians were to follow that second path, we would reason that none of us
were involved in the Dutch or Swedish abortions that took place some 60 years
ago that produced the thousands of fetal cells in use all over the world today to
test vaccines.
We
could generalize that argument to all the citizens of the world. Few of us living
today were involved in the killings that established so many of our nations by
rebellion, invasion, assassination, or overthrow of previous government, unless
our country is very new and we were directly involved in the violence that
produced it. Yet, all of us reap its benefits, assuming there are any.
We
all notice that a child’s social reference usually dates from the moment she or
he is born into the world. To a child’s consciousness, nothing really exists
before that moment. The world may have predated them, but it was, in effect, black
and white and now it is in color. As a child grows, he or she slowly learns that
multitudes of dead people determined the context in which that child lives. Coming
to terms with that reality, a growing Christian, burdened with a negative and
positive history, is called to serve God in the present living moment.
In
short, every one of us has come to the genesis of vaccinations late in the flow
of our lives. My pro-life, fundamentalist parents knew nothing about how
vaccines originated. They made sure I had all the vaccines available and,
knowing nothing ourselves, we gave our son all his shots to keep him healthy. Did
we all do wrong, by receiving a benefit that may have had evil origins?
This
question has been a curious one for me in the puzzle of my heritage. As a mixed
blood native American on my Father’s side and the son of a second generation
Greek and Czech mother, most of my family was either losing their land or
living in the “old country” when the enslavement of Blacks took place in the
Americas. I was born with Greek features and white skin favoring my mother’s
Greek father. My sister had the black hair, black eyes, tinted skin, and high
cheekbones of our father’s native heritage. Because I am white and male and appear
to be Anglo American,
am I automatically culpable for the benefits to the Anglo American culture of
African American enslavement, because our culture has privileged those who
appear similar to Anglos (whether they are primarily Anglos in origin or not)?
As
I noted, given this context, ethically, I could either choose to drop out of
the culture, refusing to progress in education or employment in case I am being
enrolled or hired because of residual prejudice, or I can respond by seeing my responsibility
as making certain I am making a special effort to treat African Americans,
Hispanics, women of all hues and origins, et. al with dignity, creating
opportunities as a professor for each of those I have the privilege of teaching
in my classes to succeed.
In
parallel, with the vaccines, I could either see myself as responsible for a
woman’s and doctor’s and researchers’ decisions made abroad decades ago and opt
out of the vaccines on moral grounds, or I can choose to vote for and support the
welfare of those infants attempting to be born today, protecting them from the
great evil of partial birth murder for economic gain. I have chosen the latter
choices in each case, because I can’t change the past, but I can change the
future. And in the case of vaccines, enough Christians like our seminarian’s
father in our opening account have died needlessly. Why should more and more
Christians die from the coronavirus in all its strains? We need as many
Christians as God calls into the faith to be alive and active and helping God
as God reconciles the world to Godself.
So, given all
this data, would Luke take and give vaccines today?
Luke
(Loukas) is identified by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the
Colossians 4:14 as the “beloved” (agapētos) “physician” (iatros,
a term also used for “one who heals” and “surgeon”).
Many variations of the term are listed in Greek-English lexicons to specify the
various types of physicians in the ancient world, but Paul uses the general
term for Luke, suggesting Luke was a general practitioner. Just as Jesus did
not order the centurion of Capernaum to give up his commission in the Roman
army before granting his request for healing, but honored him for his faith in
Matthew 8:5-10, and did not order Zacchaeus to stop being a tax collector
before being willing to enter his home (Luke 19:1-10), so did Paul not order
Luke to abandon his occupation as a medical doctor and simply pray over all
diseases, but apparently enlisted his skills for his own physical ailments from
his arduous ministry and for his and his team’s medical care. As we earlier
noted with the use of purifying liquids, ancient medicine employed a variety of
healing herbs, natural medicines, operations, and procedures. The combination
of prayer with the application of oil in the elders’ intercession on behalf of
the sick is explained well in Zondervan’s accessible NIV Archaeological
Study Bible: “Oil served a hygienic purpose prior to the invention of soap
and shampoo (e.g., anointing the scalp with oils killed head lice). Oils were
used medically. Greek physicians regularly massaged patients and athletes with
oil, and James 5:14 recommends anointing the sick with oil.”
There is no reason to doubt Luke sought God’s healing through prayer while
employing the most effective medical knowledge of his day to treat Paul and his
coworkers. Likewise, we should pray seriously to assess wisely the ethical issues
that surround our health choices, while, at the same time, we should seek what
are the most far-reaching salutary benefits for children, women, and men alive today
and employ the most effective medical means we have at our current disposal for
protecting those we love along with all of our local and global neighbors, for
whom God also considers us responsible.
For ourselves, my wife and I went to the local police station,
since our town has been blessed by a publicly minded police department of
neighbors, and signed up for the Pfizer shots, distributed free at our
wonderful public library. Our son, living in a neighboring town, received the
Moderna vaccine. We all received the shots with minor reactions and, though we
live an active life, traveling inside and outside the country, we wear masks
when we enter buildings and have experienced no attacks of Covid-19.
So,
what about the five categorical concerns our friends have expressed? We take
our friends’ convictions seriously. In our family’s experience, however, the
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which have been tested thousands of times before
we took them, have proved safe. We haven’t perceived wearing marks or taking vaccines
as a government ploy for power. Instead, we are grateful for these freely
distributed protective measures. With no allergies or other physical impediments,
we and our son separately were able to take the Pfizer and Moderna shots. However,
Aída has feared needles since her childhood in the Dominican Republic, when
needles were routinely dull and painful. Since today needles are sharp,
sterilized, one-time-used, and given by professional medical personnel who know
what they are doing, she simply turned her head away to avoid seeing the needle
enter her body. The pain was a minor pinch, and she considered it worth the
gain. None of us see a religious dimension to taking vaccines or wearing masks
(and neither do the majority of our reluctant friends). Instead, we see God
providing these protections through the wisdom with which God has gifted
humanity. At the same time, nothing is perfect in this life and there are few
real guarantees, but, as with the smallpox inoculations, treatments improve.
And as for the moral issues, these are still tough. Violence in the past is a
legacy of a fallen world; our responsibility is not to further it today. Faith
is absolutely essential. But faith is only valid if the object of faith is
trustworthy. So, we need to use our wisdom and its reasoning capability to know
where to invest our faith. Our currency wisely lectures us every time we use
it: “In God we trust.” So, as Aída says, “If Physician Luke came to me today
with a needle and a smile, I would gladly accept it.” I think that speaks for
our son, Steve, and for me as well.
Bill
(with input from Aída)
Alex
Dodson, “Jonathan Edwards –
Missionary to the American Indians,” OnePlace, https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/watchman-radio-hour/read/articles/jonathan-edwards-missionary-to-the-american-indians-11809.html, August 29, 2021. Williston Walker, Richard A. Norris,
David W. Lotz, Robert T. Handy appear to suggest he was more a victim, “Called
to serve as president of Princeton, he submitted to inoculation during a
smallpox epidemic, contracted the disease, and died a few weeks after assuming
his new duties, A History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1985), 4th ed, 610.
See “QAnon has receded from social media -- but it's just hiding,” https://apnews.com › article; posted July 9,
2021, accessed August 31, 2021; “QAnon
Followers Kicked Off Facebook, Twitter Flock To Fringe,” https://www.npr.org ›
2021/01/31 › unwelcome-on-faceb..., posted Jan 31, 2021, accessed August 31,
2021.
Christianity Today (CT), Rebecca Randall, “Not Worth a Shot: Why Some Christians Refuse Vaccinations on Moral
Grounds,” https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/april/white-evangelicals-pastors-covid-vaccine-skepticism.html,
posted April 7, 2021, accessed August 22, 2021.
