vaccine

Unlike White Evangelicals, Atheists Embrace COVID Vaccinations

A new national survey by Pew Research Center has some illuminating results. Percentage of each religious/non-religious groups that has been vaccinated with at least one shot:

57% of white evangelicals.

70% of black protestants

90% of atheists.

“Pro-Life” white evangelicals who treasure an eternal life in the hereafter have contempt for the mortal lives of themselves and their neighbors. They revere an embryo that hasn’t yet developed into a human being, but their refusal to get vaccinated puts the lives of babies, children and adults at risk.

They reject empirical evidence and science in favor of myths and conspiracy theories, behaving like we’re living in the dark ages instead of the space age.

Meanwhile black protestants who have a legitimate reason to be skeptical of medicine in general and vaccines in particular are much more receptive to getting vaccinated. The memory of the decades-long Tuskegee experiment is still fresh in their minds, but they still line up to do the right thing and get vaccinated.

Atheists who are ostracized by society, and falsely accused of not having any morals because they reject organized religion are the most socially responsible citizens. An incredible 90% of them are vaccinated, makes you wonder if we really need religion.

95% of Evangelical Leaders are Vaccinated, But Most Refuse to Encourage Their Followers to Get Vaccinated

According to a new survey from the National Association of Evangelicals almost all white evangelical leaders are vaccinated or plan to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and many of these evangelical ministers preside over churches where the congregants are anti-vaxxers.

These fearless men of God are too afraid to encourage their followers to get vaccinated, and they allow false conspiracy theories denying the efficacy of the vaccine to fester in their churches.

Most of these evangelical mega churches are in the Bible Belt where virus rates are surging, and where ignorant Bible thumpers need to hear the Good News that vaccines work.  

This manifest hypocrisy of white evangelicals leaders regarding COVID vaccines makes me wonder in what other aspects of their faith they are hypocrites.

I wonder how many evangelical ministers who rail against sodomy from the pulpit are engaging in homosexual acts in motels. I wonder how many televangelists who preach against porn from their pulpits are watching Pornhub.com in their laptops? I wonder how many pastors who thunder from the pulpit that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God, are secretly amazed how their followers can rely on Scripture as the ultimate moral authority when it endorses slavery and genocide?

I wonder at the extent of hypocrisy in the evangelical movement, is it so pervasive that it makes their faith meaningless?

Pete Buttigieg To Evangelicals: ‘Maybe A Vaccine Is Part Of God’s Plan’

“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday encouraged evangelical Christians who are reluctant to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to consider that the shots might be a ‘part of God’s plan.’

‘State of the Union’ host Jake Tapper asked Buttigieg, an Episcopalian, about the large portion of white evangelicals who say they won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine. About 40% of white evangelical Protestants said they likely would not get vaccinated, according to a poll conducted last month, compared to about 25% of all Americans, 28% of white mainline Protestants and 27% of Protestants who are not white.”

HuffPost.Com

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a Rhodes Scholar, he served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve and he’s a practicing Episcopalian. You’d think that the advice of such a prominent scholar, gentleman, military officer and Christian would be heeded by evangelicals.

Unfortunately, Buttigieg is anathema to white evangelicals because he’s a gay man who’s married to a gay man. All of his sterling credentials mean nothing to evangelicals, because the person that he loves and married is another man.

The Transportation Secretary is no fool, he acknowledged in his CNN interview that his opinion won’t sway many white evangelicals. No shit, it won’t sway a single white evangelical to get vaccinated.

I applaud Buttigieg for speaking to white evangelicals in terms that resonate with them, by asking them to consider that shots might be part of God’s plan to defeat the virus.

But evangelicals will never listen to a decent, intelligent and caring statesman like Buttigieg simply because he’s gay. However, they will listen to the thrice married, serial philanderer, narrow-minded racist, corrupt politician, Donald Trump, if he filmed a PSA asking his followers to get vaccinated.

It’s incumbent upon Republican leaders to urge their ignorant, superstitious base to do the right thing and get vaccinated.

In Hannity Interview Trump Urges Americans to Get Vaccinated

Former President Donald Trump, who botched the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, urged Americans to get vaccinated against the virus in a Monday night interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Trump told Hannity that he encouraged Republicans to be vaccinated and wasn’t sure why his followers were hesitant to take the shot.

Why is there vaccine hesitancy in Trump world?

Maybe it’s because when Trump was president, he downplayed the pandemic, dismissing is as nothing more than “the flu.”

Maybe it’s because he received his vaccine in secret, if he really wanted to inspire his base to be vaccinated, he would have filmed himself taking the shot.

Maybe it’s because he hasn’t filmed a public service commercial urging his devotees to be vaccinated.

Maybe it’s because he disparaged the physicians and scientists in his coronavirus task force, and instead led his science-denying evangelical supporters to believe that the pandemic would disappear miraculously.

Maybe it’s because he didn’t plead with evangelical leaders to urge their disciples to do the right thing, the Christian thing, and get vaccinated.

It’s not too late for Trump to do the right thing, if he begged his admirers to get vaccinated as a demonstration of faith in him, they would get in line to be injected with the vaccine.

We Need Herd Immunity Against the Coronavirus and White Evangelicals

There will be more spikes in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, but we shouldn’t despair because we have President Joe Biden’s promise that there will be enough vaccine available for all adults by the end of May.

Of course, having enough vaccine for every adult isn’t synonymous with every adult getting a shot in the arm, there are logistical problems that need to be overcome before we reach herd immunity.

The availability of vaccine is going up and at the same time vaccine hesitancy is going down. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 69 percent of Americans have indicated that they’ve either already taken the vaccine or will definitely or probably take it in the future. That’s up from 60 percent last November and significantly up for the low of 51 percent in September 2020.

But it’s not all good news on the vaccine front, vaccine hesitancy is still epidemic in white evangelical communities, and it could imperil our goal of herd immunity.

According to the Pew survey white evangelicals are the least likely to say they should consider the health effects on their community when deciding to be vaccinated. White evangelicals have the mindset of Jesus is my vaccine and the Holy Ghost and not masks will protect us, and we will continue to hold superspreader events in our churches and if the heathen get infected it’s their fault for not trusting Jesus.

Evangelicals main imperative is to evangelize, that is to demonstrate their care and compassion for their communities by reaching out to them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But their message that Jesus saves will fall on deaf ears when their refusal to wear masks, social distance and be vaccinated reveals a total disregard for the health and welfare of their neighbors. Instead of spreading the love of Christ white evangelicals are spreading false conspiracy theories and the coronavirus. White evangelicals are a more deadly disease than the coronavirus, and I’m hoping that they will be wiped out along with the coronavirus.