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Evangicals are the largest religious group unwilling to get coronavirus vaccines, some leaders are trying to change that
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Evangelical leader Franklin Graham believes Americans should get the COVID-19 vaccine. The missionary told CBS News that he thinks Jesus would want people to get their shots, and he's turning to Scripture and the parable of the Good Samaritan to make his case.
It's a case that will need to be made clearly if evangelicals — perhaps the most under-discussed group with high levels of vaccine hesitancy — can be persuaded. ...
Graham, the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and grandson of a medical missionary in China, noted that the church has a long tradition of using medicine to help others. Last week, he told his 9 million Facebook followers that his international relief charity, Samaritan's Purse, had seen human suffering from COVID-19 "first-hand," and encouraged people to "talk to their doctor, and pray about it to determine which vaccine, if any, is right for them."...
Graham, the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and grandson of a medical missionary in China, noted that the church has a long tradition of using medicine to help others. Last week, he told his 9 million Facebook followers that his international relief charity, Samaritan's Purse, had seen human suffering from COVID-19 "first-hand," and encouraged people to "talk to their doctor, and pray about it to determine which vaccine, if any, is right for them."
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in February found that white evangelicals were the least likely religious group to say they will "definitely or probably" get the COVID-19 vaccine (54%), or already had, and the most likely to say they "definitely" or "probably" would not get the vaccine (45%). That's out of all Protestants, White and Black, White and Hispanic Catholics, atheists, agnostics and "nothing in particulars."
Understanding why that is, and encouraging those who might be persuadable, could save lives as the country works to reach herd immunity, which Fauci estimates will requires 70% to 90% of the population to be vaccinated. So far, roughly 17% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated.
Curtis Chang, a former senior pastor who's now a Duke Divinity School consulting professor and runs his own consulting firm working with public health entities and nonprofits, has created a project called Christians and the Vaccine. His website offers scientific information on the vaccine from a biblical perspective, in bite-sized, shareable videos to reach evangelicals who aren't being persuaded by public health officials. ...
"The message I've been trying to get to secular public health officials is very simple — it's that the pathway to ending the pandemic runs through the evangelical church. I mean, it's just undeniable statistically," Chang said in a phone interview with CBS News. "And public health has got to start investing resources and energy to equip evangelicals to be the ones out there trying to convince their fellow brothers and sisters." ...
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