CLEVELAND -- The United States will not achieve herd immunity in its fight against COVID-19 unless it can overcome vaccine hesitancy among this nation’s 45 million adult, white evangelical Christians. According to a recent New York Times article, roughly 45% of that group, or 18 million adults, said they would not get vaccinated.
There are various reasons for this vaccine hesitancy. A woman quoted in the Times article spoke for many persons when she expressed concern that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was developed with the use of aborted fetal cell tissue. Even though a temporary pause has been announced concerning that vaccine, it is estimated that it may be back in use in weeks and not months. Thus, this issue is likely to remain an obstacle to reaching herd immunity.
Other reasons offered for vaccine hesitancy included how rapidly the vaccines were brought into use, the belief that COVID-19 can be treated with the use of the right nutrients, that faith in God can deliver people from infection and death, and that white people are less likely to contract and die from COVID-19 than are Black, Hispanic, or Native American people. Still others view this as a matter of religious liberty, where the government is trying to overrule individual religious beliefs.
Whatever the reason(s) might be, the sheer size of this group poses a significant threat to reaching herd immunity that would require between 70% and 85% of our population being vaccinated. Jamie Aten of Wheaton College, one of the most prominent evangelical schools in the country, said, “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.”
The Rev. Marvin McMickle is pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland.
There are several matters here that must be addressed.
First, opposition to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should not prevent people from being vaccinated with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines whose development was not linked to use of fetal cell lines. Some Christian ethicists like Hilary Scarsella have observed that the use of aborted fetal cell lines in medical research can increase others’ chances of health and healing. That may be a way to offset the trauma abortions may cause for some people.
Second, can vaccine hesitancy be considered a matter of evangelical Christian faith, as that term has been understood for the last 300 years? High-profile evangelicals like Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, and J.D. Greear, who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention, have all endorsed vaccine use. It should be noted that, when a group of Roman Catholic bishops in this country discouraged COVID-19 vaccinations for this same reason, Pope Francis intervened and encouraged his worldwide flock to be vaccinated.
Third, this is not in any way a religious liberty issue. Congress has passed no law regarding vaccinations that violate First Amendment rights. There is no national mandate regarding vaccination, and no fine or imprisonment awaiting those who fail to comply. No constitutional rights are being infringed upon for white evangelical Christians or any other religious community.
There is a reason why white evangelical Christians should rush to be vaccinated. At the heart of the Christian faith is our responsibility to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and to think as much about our responsibilities to one another as we do about our own personal welfare. Our nation is facing a once-in-a-century pandemic that has already infected nearly 32 million and claimed the lives of over 500,000 of our fellow citizens. That death rate will steadily increase if a significant portion of the U.S. population remains unvaccinated.
I ask this question of those who object to the use of fetal cell lines in vaccine development: Does your pro-life position extend only to the womb, or does it extend to the tomb, which is where thousands more persons are headed if this vaccine hesitancy based upon religious beliefs continues. I do not think Jesus said, “I was sick, and you chose vaccine hesitancy.”
The Rev. Marvin A. McMickle is pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland and retired president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York.
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