Monday, April 5, 2021

Coronavirus in rural America (Part CXXVIII): Christians as recalcitrant on vaccines

This has been a theme in the national news the last few days.  Well, in fairness, only one of the three stories I consumed mentioned "rural," but all were focused on Christian evangelicals--mostly white--a  group often associated with rurality.  

The first story--the one that explicitly called out the rural--was from Blake Farmer, with Nashville's NPR station.  The lede for his story was:

An NPR/Marist poll found that rural, white Republicans — especially supporters of former President Trump — are among the least likely to get a vaccine. In rural Tennessee, we hear from some of them.

There are some amazing quotes in this article, but I'll focus on the ones from a few evangelical preachers who are anti-vaxxers and invoke Christianity to support their views:   

But it's rural communities where a few leaders are actively sowing doubts. They include state legislators and even a few pastors. Greg Locke is an outspoken preacher in Wilson County, Tenn., who peppers his sermons with mocking questions.

FARMER: People say, well, what are you going to do when they make the vaccine mandatory? And we'll tell them to take a hike like I've been telling them to take a hike. That's what I will do.

FARMER: Southern states where vaccination rates are lowest have seen ministers as key allies, but it's almost entirely Black churches agreeing to hold town halls or vaccine events. Pastor Omaran Lee has been working with churches and says the concerns in Black congregations aren't that different from what he hears from rural white communities.

OMARAN LEE: We don't trust the government, and we don't trust Joe Biden is what he said, right? Well, six months ago, it was, we don't trust the government, and we don't trust Donald Trump, right? Any time you have a marginalized person, you have people who are left out, they're going to be skeptical.

Two other stories, another on NPR and one in the New York Times, focused on Christian evangelicals without the rural angle specifically mentioned.  These stories suggest that national evangelical figures like Franklin Graham are supporting the vaccination campaign.  And here's a Politico story from last month on "selling" the vaccine to rural America.  Indeed, a quick search reveals lots of stories on the top of rural vaccine hesitancy, dating back to the vaccine's roll out in December.  

3 comments:

mcrigali said...
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mcrigali said...

One thing that strikes me after reading these new stories is how intertwined health care, religion, and politics are in the U.S. The pandemic seems to connect all of these issues. I recently read that the pandemic has strengthened the faiths of many Americans, in particular white evangelicals, despite the overall trend toward secularization. https://www.pewforum.org/2021/01/27/more-americans-than-people-in-other-advanced-economies-say-covid-19-has-strengthened-religious-faith/ I wonder if this has any impact on vaccination efforts. Also, I wonder about the role of misinformation as it relates to religion itself. Of course, misinformation in health care and politics is obviously a major issue. Religion is a unique case to me because it deals with intangibles and the unseen, so I’m curious about the effects of ‘fake news’ on theology.

mcrigali said...

Sharing another article on this topic: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-vaccine-skepticism-white-evangelicals-us-32898166bbb673ad87842af24c8daefb