We have been keeping eye on the resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine in some conservative evangelical quarters. Here is the lastest:
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — At River West Palm Beach Church, Pastor Corey Erman stood in front of the congregation on Easter morning and denounced the “scam-demic” of COVID-19 and the “big, big, big con job” of testing and vaccines.
Turning to the question of vaccine passports, speaking over undulating keyboard music in a video posted on Facebook, he told the largely unmasked congregation to “say no to the mark of the beast.”
At Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, lead Pastor Doug Sauder is looking forward to getting his second vaccine dose Monday, saying he needs the protection. (”People don’t social distance from me. They give me hugs.”) But he’s well aware of the suspicion of the vaccine among many Christians.
“We actually did a Q-and-A at our church – is the vaccine the mark of the beast, the end of all time, the apocalypse, and we’re like, no, that’s absolutely not true,” he said. “It’s not in the Bible. We’re not going to state anything with authority that we don’t see in Scripture. If we don’t see it there, we’ll take the principles of the Bible and apply them to that modern circumstance and then pray for wisdom and love and unity.”
Read the rest of David Flescher’s South Florida Sun Sentinel piece here.
