Liberty Counsel Alarmism Contributes to White Evangelical Vaccine Resistance

[Nevilledog]

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Right Wing Watch
@RightWingWatch
Why are white evangelicals so resistant to taking the COVID-19 vaccine? Maybe it has something to do with Mat Staver telling them the vaccine is killing more people every day than 9/11 did.

Liberty Counsel Alarmism Contributes to White Evangelical Vaccine Resistance | Right Wing Watch
The disproportionate resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine among white evangelicals in the United States has been well documented. Part of the explanation is likely found in the anti-vaccine conspiracy...
rightwingwatch.org
12:29 PM · May 20, 2021

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/liberty-counsel-alarmism-contributes-to-white-evangelical-vaccine-resistance/

The disproportionate resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine among white evangelicals in the United States has been well documented. Part of the explanation is likely found in the anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and alarmism promoted by religious-right and right-wing media and advocacy organizations like the Liberty Counsel, as well as anti-vaccine preaching by some conservative evangelical preachers.

Even before the COVID-19 vaccines were available, religion scholars Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry warned that Christian nationalism “is consistently one of the two strongest predictors of anti-vaccine attitudes” and that Christian nationalist suspicion and resistance could be “disastrous for achieving herd immunity and reducing the spread of the virus.”

Their prediction has come to pass. In February, a Pew survey found that white evangelicals are far less likely to get vaccinated than the general public. In March, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that white evangelical Christians and Republicans were the most likely groups to say they would “definitely not” get vaccinated for COVID-19. In April, the Public Religion Research Institute reported that 26 percent of white evangelical Protestants said they would not get vaccinated and another 28 percent were “vaccine hesitant.”

Last month, One America News host Natalie Harp interviewed Liz Harrington, editor-in-chief of Steve Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic,” to try to explain away the mounting evidence that white evangelical Christians are leading the resistance to taking the COVID-19 vaccine. Harp said she personally was getting the vaccine, but she called news stories about evangelical resistance to vaccines a “dangerous” and “troubling” narrative, adding, “Imagine classifying an entire race and religion as a quote-unquote major problem that needs to be dealt with.” Harp tried to turn the story into one of anti-Christian persecution, saying:

It’s like almost now becoming a religious argument where they’re saying, you know, “Christians are bad.” So, instead of turning into, “Let’s fight COVID,” it’s now, “Let’s fight Christians because they don’t believe the science,” when we’re not even saying that. We’re just saying we believe in freedom. We don’t believe in living in a communistic society.

*snip*

[Claire Oh Nette]

1. They have no sense of irony at all, do they

“Imagine classifying an entire race and religion as a quote-unquote major problem that needs to be dealt with."


Like Black people? Muslims? Immigrants?
LBGTQs? Libruls?


Thou shalt not bear false witness must be an optional commandment, I guess.

[thucythucy]

2. They just keep mis-reading that particular commandment.

They think it's "Thou shalt not bear false witless..." and figure as long as their witlessness is genuine it's all good.

[Claire Oh Nette]

3. heh.

[tanyev]

4. Nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee.....