Former Trump National Security Director Michael Flynn is one of the stars of the Christian nationalist “ReAwaken America” tour. He is also the a “founding member” and president of the advisory board for “4thPURE” a dating and community site for […]
anti-vaxxers
Evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht is making A LOT of money promoting Trumpism and the Big Lie
In 2019, pro-Trump evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht, an Oral Roberts University graduate who was a worship leader at Bethel Church in Redding, California and a former candidate for Congress, made $280,000. In 2020, he made $5.3 million. What happened? […]
What is going on with Robert Kennedy Jr.?
Much to the dismay of the Kennedy family, Bobby Kennedy’s son is one the country’s leading anti-vaxxers and a promoter of a bunch of other conspiracy theories. Here is Adam Nagourney at The New York Times: Once a top environmental […]
A St. Louis anti-vaxxer was arrested, strapped down by four men, and vaccinated after trying to convince Blacks from the South not to take the vaccine
The article is from the St. Louis Dispatch, August 6, 1923. Thanks to historian Andrew Wehrman for bringing this to my attention. Here is his Twitter commentary:
Are you a “COVID jerk”?
What is a COVID jerk and how do you identify one? University of California-Riverside philosophy professor Eric Schwitzgebel explains in a piece today at The Atlantic: We all know the type. First appearing in the spring of 2020, the COVID […]
Nils Lofgren is the latest to pull his music from Spotify
The E Street Band guitar player joins Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Here is The Washington Post: A controversy over coronavirus misinformation on Spotify is heating up, with a handful of musicians this weekend joining Neil Young insaying they want their music […]
What is going on with NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton?
Gonzaga University suspended Stockton’s season tickets because he will not wear a mask to games. Next to Bing Crosby, Stockton is the most famous graduate of the Jesuit school in Spokane, Washington. Here is ESPN: Gonzaga has suspended John Stockton’s men’s […]
COVID-19 vaccines and and the history religious exemptions
Last November I joined Michelle Mello of Stanford University Law School in a conversation on religious exemptions and vaccines. The Council on Foreign Relations sponsored the event. You can watch it here:
I was with Greg Locke for the first fifty seconds…
Watch the Tennessee megachurch pastor: Please get vaccinated and boosted! The vaccine is safe and effective.
Tomasky: The Right’s view of liberty during this pandemic is “incompatible with human life”
Michael Tomasky is the editor of The New Republic. Here is a taste of his piece, “The Right Wants to Freedom Us to Death”: Future historians—that is, if future historians are actual historians and not a bunch of hired-gun fascist […]
Sources on the history of religious-based vaccine resistance in America
I included a lot of history in today’s Current feature on vaccine exemptions. The piece draws on a talk I gave earlier this week to the constituents of the Council of Foreign Relations. I am told that the video will […]
Another evangelical anti-vaxxer dies of COVID-19
His name is Marcus Lamb. Here is Michelle Boorstein at The Washington Post: Marcus Lamb, founder of the large Christian network Daystar, died Tuesday after contracting the coronavirus. Lamb’s network during the pandemic has made the virus a huge focus, calling […]
Gerson: “Vaccine resisters sacrificing their jobs are not heroes”
Here is the evangelical Christian writer and Washington Post columnist: The nation’s leading purveyor of lethal medical advice during a pandemic (trademark pending) has recently elevated the resisters against coronavirus vaccines — an airline pilot here, a nurse there — as models of citizenship. […]
Vaccination mandates have a long history. Backlash to vaccination mandates have a long history.
Good to see Andrew Wehrman cited in Maggie Astor’s New York Times piece. A taste: Professor Wehrman this week tweeted an example of what, in an interview, he said was a “ubiquitous” phenomenon: The health board in Urbana, Ohio, Jordan’s hometown, enacted […]
Apparently a lot of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are running for local school boards
Some are saying it’s a new front in the culture wars. Back in August, CNN ran a story about about a group called “Back to School-PA” that is throwing money at anti-mask candidates. In Delaware, a group called “Stand Up […]
“How do you have an unthreatening, warm, friendly conversation with someone who thinks Oprah Winfrey and Pope Francis eat children?”
Here is a taste of Katha Pollitt’s piece at The Nation: I can just barely see how someone could think that virtually every doctor on the planet is wrong—after all, the medical consensus has been wrong before. But where’s the […]
Why there should be no “religious exemptions” to vaccine mandates
We have posted about Curtis Chang before. He is the co-founder of Christians and the Vaccine and a faculty member at Duke Divinity School. Here is a taste of his recent op-ed at The New York Times: First, there is […]
In my adult life I have never met so many people “doing research.” Here is one example of where such “research” is leading people.
I tweeted about “research” last night: I am talking to more and more people who will not take the COVID-19 vaccine, but have no problem taking the horse-deworming drug Ivermectin. They are “doing their research” despite the fact that the […]
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Are COVID masks and vaccination mandates a form of Christian persecution?
Short answer: No. Yesterday Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf issued a mask requirement for schools. I spent my evening talking/e-mailing with three different evangelical Christian friends who were upset about this. Two of the three people I communicated with were also […]