This is a companion article to The Tortured Theology Behind Vaccine Resistance.
By now it is all but popular dogma that white evangelicals in the South take primary responsibility for the rise in COVID-19 infections, particularly with the recent rise in cases due to the Delta variant. They just are not getting vaccinated at comparable levels with the rest of the country. In my home state of Alabama the vaccination rate is still well under fifty percent.
Leaving aside the inescapable fact that Black and Latino communities have been slow to receive the vaccine, it is also undeniable that white evangelicals in the Bible Belt have waged, depending on your point of view, a quixotic or reckless resistance effort to receive the vaccine.
The reasons for skepticism, particularly around southern evangelicals, over the vaccine range from the bizarre - and, frankly, entertaining (think “mark of the beast” fantasies from the likes of elected officials) - to the rational. For a vaccine that has been around for far less than a year, which has been touted by two presidents whose history of telling the truth is…not great, it is not out of the realm of sanity for some to question recommendations from the federal government.
Add to this the a healthy distrust of government the fact that the FDA only approved the first vaccine on August 23rd and, under normal circumstances it may be easy to comprehend the rationale that leads to vaccine hesitancy.
Of course, these are anything but normal times. Perhaps “exhibit A” was watching Donald Trump get booed in Cullman, Alabama when he recommended that the adoring crowd at his rally receive the vaccine.
There is also the nagging fact that, at least in Alabama, doctors seem divided on the issue of the vaccine. Anecdotally, I personally know of at least two completely healthy people who have received advice from their doctor not to get the vaccine. So the narrative that evangelicals in the deep south of Alabama are murderous and selfish to hesitate and question appears to be, if nothing else, oversimplified.
Lately, he failure of Alabama’s vaccination program have recently been on display for the world to see. Although the god-like Nick Saban has been on commercial after commercial endorsing the vaccine, the resistance has continued. And although Republican Governor Kay Ivey - who will never be confused for a liberal - has blasted individuals for not receiving the vaccine, the resistance lives.
And while there are positive signs on the horizon that evangelicals, a group that includes forty-nine percent of Alabamians, and Christians as a whole, which make up nearly ninety percent of the population, are warming up to the idea of a vaccine, the resistance moves forward.
The typical response to vaccine-resisters in general and Alabamians in particular has been nothing short of a smear campaign. Shame and ridicule is heaped by the proverbial truckload upon the heads of any who would dare wait or refuse to accept the vaccine. Everyone from the aforementioned Governor Ivey to Twitter superstars to Michael Moore has made shaming vaccine-resisters an almost daily sport.
And while it is demonstrably true that our ongoing public health catastrophe is being made worse by the choice to refuse the vaccine, and parents (myself included) are certainly entitled to rage at the prospect of their unvaccinated children’s vulnerability (though, it should be noted that less than 400 children have died from COVID since the beginning of the pandemic) the tactics ostensibly being used to change hearts and minds seems dubious at best. The question has to be asked, what is the end goal in publicly shaming the unvaccinated?
If the goal is to retain a sense of moral superiority while the pandemic reaches yet unknown peaks, the strategy of public shaming seems sound. If, however, the goal is to convince the unvaccinated to visit their nearest drug store and, for the love of God, take the shot, perhaps the first thing that needs to happen is to understand the logic that got them there in the first place.
Derek Jacks, who pastors a church in Birmingham, was asking colleagues who were posting anti-vaccination sentiments with regularity on social media. He asked them if they had any theological reasoning for their positions.
“(One pastor) said he had no theological reasoning (behind his anti-vaccination stance). It was just not an FDA-approved treatment”, Jacks told me, before adding, “It was odd that he did not want to take the time to talk about it.”
Perhaps this is a story that’s not about the wild conspiracy theories, snake oil salesman or creative interpreters of biblical passages. Instead, it may be a failure of politicians, the news media and the medical community to lead with a coherent message.
Further, it may simply be that there is not enough evidence available to change the minds of white evangelicals in Alabama - or Americans regardless of their religious position - who are resisting the vaccine.
Whatever we may think about the relative insanity of refusing the vaccine, waiting until there is more information, or remaining silent as a religious leader, what should be clear is that shaming people into changing their minds is a losing strategy.
Yes, it may well be that oversimplifying the issue to attack others will leave us morally clean. But if the end goal is to increase vaccinations and put an end to the pandemic, then perhaps keeping our heads and seeking understanding, if nothing else, can be effective in ultimately doing just that.
By the way, the FDA approval? Since then I got an update from Pastor Jacks about his white evangelical vaccine-resister colleague.
“Since the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine, he now feels comfortable advocating for the shot.”
Perhaps as the Delta variant spreads and more information becomes available, those of us who have advocated strongly for the vaccine will have something constructive to say to those on the other side of the fence. But that would require the hard work of becoming curious about those with whom we disagree.
And maybe they will change their minds if we demonstrate just a bit of humility.
Who knows? Maybe they’ll even get the shot.