Missouri clergy urge vaccination: ‘medically, scientifically but also theologically’

More than 200 Missouri pastors and ministers are joining a COVID-19 vaccination outreach effort spearheaded by a Jefferson City-based Christian magazine.

The effort comes as the aggressive delta variant of the virus continues its spread across the state.

On Wednesday the pastors, led by Word&Way editor-in-chief Brian Kaylor, will launch an advertising campaign and issue a plea for Missouri Christians to get vaccinated, “as a way of following Jesus’s command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Missouri is second in the nation, behind Arkansas, for the most new COVID cases per capita on a weekly basis. Full vaccinations in recent days crept just above 40% of the population — far below the 75 to 80% needed to contain the virus.

In southwest Missouri, the area hardest hit by the delta variant so far, health officials have embarked on sometimes painstaking and personal outreach efforts to get vaccines to those who are mostly hesitant or opposed. Door-to-door canvassing is one component; another is urging conversations between friends and family.

The endorsement of trusted figures in the community such as clergy, they say, is critical. Springfield health officials and clinics have partnered with two prominent local churches to host clinics in recent weeks.

The Missouri clergy on Wednesday plan to make a faith-based plea: for “every follower of Jesus to realize their responsibility to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). At this moment that means increasing vaccination rates in our community.”

Vaccine hesitant

In a March poll, the Public Religion Research Institute found that white evangelical Protestants were among the leading groups of religious Americans who are hesitant or would refuse to take a vaccine. They were second to Hispanic Protestants.

But it also found that 47% of white evangelical Protestants who regularly attend church and were vaccine hesitant said they would be more likely to accept a shot with a faith-based approach. Sixty-six percent said they would go to a religious leader at least for information about vaccines — as would 70% of Black Protestants.

Kaylor, a Baptist minister and writer, has been encouraging COVID precaution measures in churches since the pandemic began. The magazine devoted its January cover story to vaccinations, and “encouraging it from a faith perspective,” he said.

“We need to do whatever we can to speak into this moment,” he said. “Let’s get vaccinated: medically, scientifically but also theologically.”

Kaylor said he knows of no Christian denominations that oppose vaccination on religious grounds, but acknowledged anti-vaccine sentiments are pushed by some pastors or churches at the local level.

“I don’t think you’re seeing it at big-picture level,” he said. “I think that’s a minority opinion. There are some ministers that are pushing it but they are out of touch even with their own denominational leaders.”

Word&Way senior editor Rev. Beau Underwood, former senior minister at First Christian Church in Jefferson City, said leaders from more than a dozen Christian denominations are joining the outreach effort, including from more conservative sects and from both urban and rural communities.

“It really does cut across the theological spectrum,” he said.

Those joining the effort from Kansas City include Darron LaMonte Edwards, Sr., Lead Pastor of United Believers Community Church, and Emily Stirewalt, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and a hospital chaplain.

Kaylor has encouraged pastors across Missouri to share photos of themselves getting vaccinated on Facebook.

“It seems so simple but it really can make a difference coming from someone who speaks with moral authority,” he said. “If you’re sitting in a pew, Sunday after Sunday, that’s an important relationship with your minister, a trusted voice in your life.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 12:28 PM.