Home Christian News Many Bible Belt Preachers Silent on Shots During COVID Surge

Many Bible Belt Preachers Silent on Shots During COVID Surge

The disparity matters because vaccination rates are generally low across the Bible Belt, where Southern and Midwestern churchgoers are a formidable bloc that has proven resistant to vaccination appeals from government leaders and health officials. While many Black and Latino people haven’t been vaccinated, the large number of white evangelical resisters is particularly troubling for health officials.

poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in March showed that 40% of white evangelical Protestants said they likely would not get vaccinated, compared with 25% of all Americans, 28% of white mainline Protestants and 27% of nonwhite Protestants.

Some national voices including Black megachurch minister T.D. Jakes, evangelist Franklin Graham and former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear have taken public stances in favor of vaccinations. But there hasn’t been a sustained, unified push that could give local pastors “cover” to speak out themselves, Chang said.

First Baptist Trussville has taken multiple steps to guard against spreading the virus, including following public health guidelines and limiting in-person events, according to spokesman and business manager Alan Taylor. Yet when it comes to the vaccines, church leaders consider them “a personal choice,” he said.

“When I am asked personally, I say it was the right choice for me and my wife,” said Taylor, who contracted a relatively rare breakthrough case of COVID-19 despite having been vaccinated. “I firmly believe it helped when I became infected.”

The story is much the same in Mississippi and Georgia, where some churches are returning to online services and some pastors are quietly talking about the need for vaccination.

More than 200 pastors, priests and other church leaders from Missouri went further as cases exploded last month, signing a statement urging Christians to get vaccinated because of the biblical commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Springfield Mayor Ken McClure said the region saw a big jump in vaccinations after the pastor of a large church used his sermon to tell parishioners it was the right thing to do.

Dr. Ellen Eaton, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said churches could be effective at promoting vaccination as a way “to love your neighbors during this pandemic.”

“Many Southerners are very close to their pastors and church communities. Next to their personal physician, many here in Alabama routinely turn to their church leaders with health issues,” she said.

One pastor at a liberal United Methodist church in Birmingham issued a plea on social media for members to get vaccinated, while the minister at a moderate Baptist church nearby prayed during worship for divine intervention for more vaccinations.

“We pray, Lord, that there will be good judgment used and that people would see the need for the vaccine and that it would be available not only here in our own country but around the world and that that might stem the tide of this terrible, terrible virus,” said the Rev. Timothy L. Kelley of Southside Baptist Church.

Evangelical pastor Keven Blankenship was among those trying to walk that tightrope after COVID-19 invaded his independent church in suburban Birmingham, sickening three of his family members, among others. Initially he didn’t preach about the vaccines, considering it a personal choice.

But on a recent Sunday, during the first in-person services in a month, Blankenship revealed he had gotten his first shot and was due for a second.

“If you feel comfortable receiving it, I want you to receive it. If you don’t feel comfortable, I want you to talk to your doctor and you get your doctor’s guidance,” he told worshipers. “But I want you to do what you feel is the best thing for you and your family, and don’t be bullied into anything.”

Blankenship ended with an “Amen,” said almost as if a question. He was met by silence.

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Associated Press writer Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri, contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

This article originally appeared here.