The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest evangelical denomination, posted a photo on Facebook last week of him taking the COVID-19 vaccine. He attracted more than 1,100 comments – many of them expressing admiration for Rev. JD Greear, and many others attacking him.
Some of the critics wondered if worshipers would now need “vaccine passports” to enter Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, where Greear is a pastor. Others described vaccines as satanic or unsafe, or suggested that Greear was complicit in government propaganda.
The split reaction highlighted a phenomenon that has become increasingly apparent in recent polls and polls: skepticism about the vaccine is more widespread among white evangelicals than almost any other large block of Americans.
In a March survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 40% of white evangelical Protestants said they were unlikely to be vaccinated, compared with 25% of all Americans, 28% of traditional white Protestants and 27% of non -White Protestants.
The findings have aroused concern even in evangelical circles. The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 local churches, is part of a new coalition that will host events, work with the media and distribute various public messages to build trust among cautious evangelicals.
“The way to end the pandemic is through the evangelical church,” said Curtis Chang, a former pastor and missionary who founded ChristiansAndTheVaccine.com, the cornerstone of the new initiative, with white evangelicals comprising about 20% of the United States’ population, resistance to vaccination by half of them would seriously undermine efforts to achieve collective immunity, says Chang.
Many evangelical leaders have spoken out in support of vaccination, from the pastor of the Dallas mega-church, Robert Jeffress, to Reverend Russel Moore, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptists.
Jeffress believes that the majority of his congregation at First Baptist Dallas welcomes vaccines, while some have doubts about their safety or fear they have ties to abortion. Jeffress is among several religious leaders who claim that major vaccines are acceptable because of their remote and indirect links to cell lines developed from aborted fetuses.
Moore expressed hope that SBC pastors will provide “wise advice” to their congregations if members raise questions about vaccines.
“These vaccines are a reason for evangelicals to celebrate and give thanks to God,” he said by email. “I am confident that pastors and lay members want churches to be full again and vaccines will help us get there sooner or later.”
Other evangelical pastors are hesitant to take a public stance.
Aaron Harris, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas, has not discussed the pulpit vaccine or decided whether to be vaccinated.
“We don’t believe it is a biblical issue; it’s a personal matter, ”said Harris, who estimates that 50% of the older adults in the congregation have been vaccinated, while fewer younger members plan to do so.
“We must not live in fear of the virus because we have faith in eternity. However, just because we are not afraid of it, where is the line of what we should do? ” he asked. “I am not going to lie down in front of a flock of crocodiles to show my faith that way.”
Some Christians say they prefer to leave their destiny in the hands of God, rather than being vaccinated.
“We are going to go through times of trials and all kinds of terrible things, but we still know where we are going in the end,” said Ron Holloway, 75, of Forsyth, Missouri. “And the sky is much better than here on earth. Why would we fight out of here? “
John Elkins, pastor of the Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Brazoria, Texas, about 50 miles south of Houston, said that only one person in his SBC congregation of about 50 has been vaccinated.
“We are in a very libertarian area. There is a lot of hesitation in everything that seems to come from the federal government, ”said Elkins, who is also renouncing the vaccine, at least for now, along with his wife.
Elkins, whose father was a professor of gynecology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said the doubts of his faithful have no theological basis.
“It is skepticism about effectiveness,” he said. “People are concerned that it was rushed too quickly.”
Phillip Bethancourt, another Southern Baptist pastor in Texas, encouraged his congregation at the Central Church in College Station to get the vaccine and believes that most will. The church sponsored a vaccination campaign for employees and volunteers from other churches; 217 people received their first doses on March 22.
“Even people who may be skeptical from a medical point of view can understand it from a missional point of view,” he said. “If it helps more people to be able to serve in their churches again, so that more children can learn about Jesus, that is a good thing.”
Bethancourt, a former vice president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, spoke with congregants who reject the vaccine and say they are not afraid to die if it is God’s will.
“The feeling doesn’t bother me, but there is inconsistency,” he said. “We do not adopt this mentality in other aspects of our lives, such as not wearing a seat belt.”
Chang said that, as a former pastor, he understands why some whose congregations are suspicious of the government and vaccines are gagging, instead of risking a reaction if they urge their flock to get vaccinated.
“It will take a little courage,” he said.
His initiative includes a toolkit for pastors offering suggestions on how to address – within a Christian framework – the various concerns of skeptical evangelicals. They range from the extent to which vaccines link abortion to whether they represent “the mark of the beast”, a sinister omen of the end times prophesied in the New Testament Book of Revelation.
The partnership in the initiative is the Ad Council, known for iconic public service advertising campaigns, such as Smokey Bear and “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk”.
“We know the important role that faith plays in the lives of millions of people across the country,” said Advertising Council President Lisa Sherman, expressing hope that the campaign can boost her confidence in vaccines.
As soon as vaccines became available, there was widespread concern that many black Americans would hesitate to take them due to the historical mistrust related to racism in government health initiatives. But recent research shows that black Protestants are more open to vaccination than white evangelicals.
“This pandemic has hit our community like a plague – and it has made our job easier,” said Bishop Timothy Clarke of God’s First Church, a black evangelical church in Columbus, Ohio. “We did an excellent job of education.”
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Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth of Kansas City, Missouri contributed to this report.
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