Pastors can play an important role in fighting COVID-19

What is the role of pastors with vaccine-hesitant churches?

Certain religious groups in the U.S. have low Covid-19 vaccination rates. Only 66% of Protestants, for instance, were vaccinated by August. White evangelical protestants, in particular, were the lowest, at 57%. (Interestingly, those who said their religion was "nothing in particular" had the second lowest vaccination rate, at 69%.) 

A new Pew Research poll, conducted Sept. 20-26 and published today, shows the important role religious leaders can play in fighting vaccine hesitancy. The good news is that very few religious service attenders (5%) reported that their pastors discouraged them from getting the vaccine, and almost 2 in 5, 39%, said their pastor encouraged them to get the vaccine. It's a start. 

A majority, 54%, of pastors said nothing either way about the vaccine. But a greater proportion of churchgoers, 61%, say they trust their pastor "to provide guidance about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine." 

How pastors address vaccines should vary depending on the particular needs, patterns, and traditions of each congregation. Pastors aren't medical professionals, but as truth professionals (John 8:32), they should consider the important role they can play in countering the conspiracies underlying much vaccine hesitancy. Pastors could, for instance, have a medical professional come speak to their congregations to answer questions about the vaccine. 

Relatedly, American Values Coalition has programming planned for pastors, including an upcoming "Pastor Workshop on Misinformation." If you're a pastor, be sure you're on our pastor list by putting "pastor" in the occupation field for our sign-up page. 

3 More Things 

1. David French: "A Whiff of Civil War in the Air: Malice and misinformation are driving national division." 

The cycle works a bit like this. Malice and disdain makes a person vulnerable to misinformation. Misinformation then builds more malice and disdain and enhances the commercial demand for, you guessed it, more misinformation. Rinse and repeat until entire media empires exist to supply that demand. 

Moreover, there are different kinds of misinformation. There’s of course blunt, direct lying, which is rampant online. But there’s also deception by omission (a news diet that consistently feeds a person with news only of the excesses of the other side) and by exaggeration and hyperbole. 

2. Watch: Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s 60 Minutes interview. 

When we live in an information environment that is full of angry, hateful, polarizing content it erodes our civic trust, it erodes our faith in each other, it erodes our ability to want to care for each other, the version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world.

3. Study: Christian nationalism and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake

Using a new nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, we find that Christian nationalism is one of the strongest predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and is negatively associated with having received or planning to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Since Christian nationalists make up approximately 20 percent of the population, these findings could have important implications for achieving herd immunity.