The metrics by which we intuitively assess whether something is religious presume a post-Enlightenment Protestant framework that may be more misleading than clarifying. Hence, if one argues that vaccine skepticism does not have a biblical basis and therefore does not qualify for a religious exemption, one is presupposing that justifying behaviors with a sacred text makes something religious, and this is not a feature shared by all religions. Thus, as several authors have argued, post-Enlightenment Protestant Christianity became the yardstick against which all other cultures were measured, and something became “religious” to the degree it measured up. When the category of “religion” as we know it came into currency in modern Europe, people were more likely to identify behavior as “religious” if it paralleled their own religious practice. These commentators, among others, cast doubt on the notion that vaccine skepticism among Christians derives from believers’ religious commitments, with Sandsmark suggesting that it’s more a matter of “political identities” and Mello saying it’s “something that looks more ideological.” This conclusion is justified, but before we decide whether these exemption requests are or are not “religious,” we need to reflect on the biases that affect how the term “religious” gets applied.įor centuries, there has been a tendency to identify as “religious” any practices that seem similar to the religious practices found in the observer’s own culture. As Curtis Chang writes, “Within both Catholicism and all the major Protestant denominations, no creed or Scripture in any way prohibits Christians from getting the vaccine.” Berry College’s David Barr puts the point sharply, “When Christians claim a religious exemption to this vaccine mandate because they don’t want to take it, the biblical term for what they’re doing is ‘taking the Lord’s name in vain.’” Numerous Christian leaders, including Pope Francis, have made public statements in favor of vaccination, and many scholars have debunked and dismissed the claims of those who say their Christian faith precludes them from getting vaccinated. Sandsmark is not alone in pointing out that Christianity is not an anti-vax religion. “If they look to the moral reasoning and sources of authority within their traditions,” Sandsmark writes, “they will hear a message on vaccines that differs considerably from those on offer by many Republican leaders.” Large-scale vaccine skepticism is a new phenomenon, but is it a religious phenomenon? As The New York Times’s Ruth Graham reports, evidence suggests “most objections described as religious to vaccines are really a matter of personal - and secular - beliefs.” In an article titled “Religious Opposition to Vaccines Is Rooted in Politics, Not Tradition,” UVA’s Evan Sandsmark argues that vaccine refusal among Christian conservatives has more to do with their politics than their religious convictions. As Stanford’s Michelle Mello observes, “the group of people who is opposed to the vaccine now is just orders of magnitude larger than it has ever been for any other vaccine, and much broader in its reach across different religions or different age groups. Though more Christians in the United States became skeptical of vaccines in the 2000s, the number of mainstream Christian denominations seeking religious exemptions in the past year is astonishing. In September, almost a third of American Protestants said they were unvaccinated. By contrast, for the COVID-19 vaccines, the majority of Americans seeking religious exemptions are either evangelicals or conservative Catholics. While there has been religiously motivated vaccine opposition in the past, it came mainly from comparatively small religious groups. Another question that has been debated is whether or not these requests for religious exemptions are, in fact, religious, or whether people are simply using First Amendment laws as a pretext to get out of vaccine requirements.Īs a recent study shows, 10% of Americans believe that getting the COVID-19 vaccine conflicts with their religious beliefs. Legal scholars have discussed whether these religious exemptions are precedented and ethicists have discussed whether or not they are wise. In recent months, there has been a great deal of debate about religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
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