The recent death from COVID of prominent televangelist Marcus Lamb, who had been consistently spreading misinformation about coronavirus vaccines on his program, has not changed white evangelical Christian attitudes towards getting vaccinated. Lamb not only criticized vaccines, but he also was a super-spreader of unproven COVID treatments.
Lamb is not the only vaccine-denying evangelical Christian pastor to die from COVID over the past year. In mid-December, Salon’s Nebil Husayn reported that “On Aug. 17, Roger Dale Moon, pastor of Revelation Fire Ministries in South Carolina, wrote that he did not fear COVID-19 since "the blood of Jesus that covers me stops every kind of disease or virus that tries to enter my spirit, soul and body." He died on Oct. 19, shortly after contracting COVID-19.”
Other church leaders that died from COVID include: Bob Enyart, radio talk show host and the pastor of Denver Bible Church in Colorado, Dean Kohn of Descending Dove Outreach International in California, Bob Marson of Umpqua Valley Community Fellowship in Oregon and Rob Skiba of Virtual House Church, a Texas-based online community.
Tim Parsons, pastor of Center Point Church in Lexington, Kentucky, died on Aug. 26 from COVID-19, after his church had advised members “not to worry” about the virus since God was “in control.”
Almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, white evangelical Christians continue to lag behind most other Americans in terms of getting vaccinated. According to Joanne Silberner, “pushback against Covid-19 vaccines has remained stubbornly high, with polls in recent months suggesting between 30% and 40% refused to get vaccinated, the highest proportion among any religious group surveyed.” According to the Public Religion Research Institute, about 14.5% of Americans are white evangelical Christians.
“Throughout the pandemic,” Silberner wrote, then-NIH Director Francis Collins, a white evangelical himself, “has appeared on podcasts with leaders across the religious spectrum, including white evangelical leaders Rick Warren and Franklin Graham. His goal was ‘to encourage both people in the pews and their pastors to really step back from all of the misinformation and embrace vaccines as answers to prayer.’”
In December, after the death of Lamb, The Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein reported that “Dan Darling … lost his job as spokesman for the National Religious Broadcasters in August after he publicly endorsed vaccines from an evangelical perspective. The NRB is a conservative-leaning group of Christian media professionals.
“While most evangelicals have seen the prudence and safety of the vaccines, there are many who are hesitant,” Darling wrote to The Post. “Part of the reason for this skepticism is a deep distrust of American institutions, many of which have failed in recent years. And part of the reason is misinformation. I’m saddened by the passing of Marcus Lamb. His ministry was very influential and was felt by millions around the world. We should mourn every death from COVID and pray for an end to this pandemic.”
Boorstein pointed out that Daystar, Lamb’s network, had “for months … hosted conspiracy theorists pressing unproven treatments for the virus, including some who framed vaccines and mandates as ungodly and satanic. Lamb and others featured on Daystar described the virus, vaccines and vaccine mandates as evidence of the devil trying to attack followers of a true God.”
While some evangelical leaders have expressed support for vaccinations, most couch the debate over vaccines as a personal choice. Others, no doubt fearing loss of parishioners, have refused to comment oneway or the other.
Last year, Curtis Chang, a divinity school professor launched the Christians and the Vaccine project. He recognizes that opposition among evangelicals is multi-layered.
“Built into conservative evangelical Christianity, at its best, is a critical stance towards all institutions. There is this belief: ‘Look, we follow Jesus, and all other loyalties have to be critically evaluated.’ Anything secular is held in immediate suspicion,” Chang said. “That impulse in evangelicalismhas gotten so weaponized by a bunch of influences in politics, media and movements like the anti-vaccine movement. It adds a spiritualization of that suspicion, such that they see demonic forces. It’s so entangled.”
Author and journalist Sarah Posner told The Washington Post that “Marcus Lamb was seen by his audience as a very godly Christian figure who is telling them that the vaccines are bad and these [alternative treatments] are good and to do these things instead. So how could heget covid? Because satanic forces are against his truth-telling and are trying to bring him down.” She added: “If vaccines are being promoted by Democrats or a government controlled by Democrats, they must be bad.”
Salon noted that “So many white evangelical Christians are so openly hostile and dismissive of public health measures that users of the social media platform Reddit recently created an archive and discussion threaddocumenting individuals who make public declarations of their anti-mask, anti-vaccine or COVID-hoax views — and then die from the disease.
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