Religious leaders are reiterating their support for vaccines as the pandemic ramps up, including Latter-day Saint leaders today. In my article on religious exemptions, I note that many requests come from people who belong to churches that embrace vaccines https://t.co/dNHwplJz5w
— Kelsey Dallas (@kelsey_dallas) August 12, 2021
Want to be smart?
Then avoid simple narratives in news coverage. That’s especially true on the still-timely subject of religion and debates about the COVID-19 vaccines.
For evidence, check out these recent stories:
• “As vaccine mandates become a reality, politicians, pastors and even the pope are speaking out against faith-based exemptions,” the Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas reports.
But here’s the twist: “In many cases, those who claim a religious exemption are part of a denomination that doesn’t share their concerns, although many faith leaders do support making exemptions available.”
• “Does respect for human life mean vaccine mandates?” asks a story by the Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein.
The answer? It’s complicated.
“In recent days, with a handful of organizations from Facebook and Google to the University of Virginia announcing vaccine mandates, religious leaders and organizations have considered their own teachings and values on the question of how to show respect for life,” Boorstein writes. “And their conclusions vary widely.”
• This news, via USA Today, jumps out at you: “Florida church vaccinates hundreds after 6 members die from COVID-19 in 10 days.”
“It’s just been ripping our hearts apart,” the senior pastor says in the story by Marina Pitofsky.
It’s probably no surprise that social media pounced on the church for waiting until members died to promote vaccinations.
Except, as anyone reading the entire report learns, it didn’t: “The church vaccinated about 800 people in March at a similar event as COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in the U.S.”
While not religion related per se, Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal column this week makes some excellent points.
“Americans need to be more tactful and understanding when it comes to measures like masks and vaccines,” the column suggests, and Noonan explains why.
#Florida church vaccinates hundreds after 6 members died from #COVID19 within 10 days. None of the dead were #vaccinated. Four were <35 yrs old. Now a 7th has just died. DON’T WAIT for friends & family to die to #GetVaccinated #ThisIsOurShothttps://t.co/8t1MrUQUpR via @usatoday
— Tatiana Prowell, MD (@tmprowell) August 12, 2021
More interesting coverage:
• Why so many white evangelicals are shifting from vaccine hesitance to acceptance (by Mya Jaradat, Deseret News)
• Russell Moore: Sickness, death from COVID-19 likely reducing some vaccine hesitancy (by Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service)
• ICYMI: The young and secular are least vaccinated, not evangelicals (by Ryan Burge, ReligionUnplugged)
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. U.S. employers get religion with vaccine mandates: Have we mentioned religion and the COVID-19 vaccines yet?
Seriously, this is an important angle from Reuters’ Tom Hals, who writes:
WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) — As coronavirus infections rise again, U.S. companies mandating vaccinations are confronting an uncomfortable question rarely asked by an employer — what is an employee’s religious belief?
2. America’s Revival features calls to prayer, Jesus trumps COVID claims and Mike Lindell conspiracy theories: Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana reports on a three-day Christian nationalist event north of Dallas (held, in case anyone is curious, in the suburb where I lived when I worked for The Associated Press in Texas):
FRISCO, Texas (RNS) — The organizers of America’s Revival love Jesus and America, too.
And they believe God still has a plan for the United States.
“He loves the United States,” Joshua Feuerstein, a Oneness Pentecostal preacher and founder of America’s Church, told a crowd of more than 1,000 worshippers on Friday (Aug. 6).
CONTINUE READING: “To Vax Or Not: From Mandates To Respect For Human Life, Religious Response Is Complicated,” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.
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