Vaccines and Masks

MIGHT AS WELL BEGIN

this writing season with something we’re all weary of, but to which I’ve not publicly commented on before. Covid-19. I’m choosing this because, when viewpoints vary widely on almost anything important amongst followers of Jesus, practical wisdom is often lost. We’ve already made up our minds, so what’s the point? “It’s my choice.”

EXPERT VOICES

from medical and scientific corners have been generous with their advice on Covid-19. Thank you. Politicians whiffle back and forth on Covid like gusts of wind, blowing out what light we do have. Thank you, too, but you’re not helping. Then there are theologians and pastors like me who want to say the right things, but aren’t sure what the right things are. We do want to be right though, even as we wade into a scientific, medical, political, spiritual and moral swamp beyond our understanding. So whether you are looking for words of wisdom or a Covid-whipping horse, I’m here now. You decide which you prefer me to be, then act on that. This also is your choice.

WITH COVID-19

and its variants on a significant rise, especially among children and the unvaccinated, I believe it’s time to re-examine our views on vaccines and masks. As of August 21, 2021, a reported 169,592,873 Americans — or 51.1% of the total population — had received the full course of vaccinations necessary to protect against Covid-19, according to the CDC.

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VACCINES & MASKS

are part of a much larger discussion going on everywhere, and one that affects each of us personally. To be shot or not to be shot. That is the question. To wear or not to wear. That is the other question. Can I just say, I am weary of all things Covid? I do not like shots. I do not like masks. I wish it would all just go away. It is, however, a vital concern and there is no simple answer that appeals to all.

I’ve read copious notes and articles, listened to doctors, scientists, politicians, preachers, neighbors and close friends. I prayed for a good and much younger friend of mine who ultimately died from Covid; and when another friend, closer to my age, who had been “shot,” still contracted Covid from an unknown exposure; and when my daughter and her husband suffered from Covid; and when good friends decided not to take the shot. Like you, I pray for us all and for pandemic sufferers around the world.

We know where this terrible thing began. We are not sure how it began. Perhaps the most important question is, why? Perhaps one day we will know the answers to these and other related questions. Meanwhile we are left with practical present day choices. To be shot or not to be shot. To wear a mask or not to wear.

FULL DISCLOSURE:

I do not favor federal, state or local covid shot and mask “mandates.” I favor doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Not only for oneself but for others, too. But what is “the right thing?”

I choose to wear a mask, not because I believe it is a certain protection against covid,?because I don’t. However, when and where it is necessary, I wear it out of respect for others. I don’t like masks but, as a Christian, masks are “not my mountain to die on.”

I also chose to be “shot” and these are my reasons: 1) I live among the most covid-vulnerable age group; 2) if it were known I had for reasons other than medical, i.e., political or religious, refused the shot, the favor I hope for as a follower of Jesus among those with whom I live would be lost; 3) I have been quarantined for 14 days on two different occasions and for a 5 day cautionary quarantine on a third occasion, all because I’ve been exposed to Covid by persons who had the virus or who tested positive … it’s not fun; and 4) because I believe it is best health-wise for those around me and for myself.?

THIS IS NOT MY FIRST VACCINE RODEO.

I’ve been “shot” before. My parents made certain of it to protect me from diseases killing or disabling other children by the tens of thousands around the world while I was growing up. As an adult, I’ve taken a mumps shot and shingles shots and shots to put me under during surgeries. Yesterday I took my annual flu shot.?A few years ago, on a mission trip to Africa, I?needed proof of shots for hepatitis A , hepatitis B , typhoid , cholera , yellow fever , rabies , meningitis , polio , measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) , Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) , chickenpox , shingles , pneumonia and influenza . And what is true for me, in one way or another, is the experience of us all. This is not new territory.

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Christian pastor, theology professor and former seminary president, James Emery White, puts it like this. “If you want to hold to a ‘the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit’ argument, then here are the facts: More than 600,000 people have died from COVID in the U.S. alone; 600,000 have not died from the vaccine. So which most honors the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit? A vaccine to protect against COVID or to allow COVID to enter your body? Particularly now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full FDA approval.”[1]

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There it is. You may or may not agree with my viewpoint, but at least you know with clarity as to how and why I view the vaccine and mask conundrum the way I do. Hopefully this will be helpful to you, because the fact is, to be shot or not to be shot is still the question. One we have no choice but to answer.

Perhaps the greatest of all ‘words of wisdom’ come to us from Jesus, who said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”[2]

You and I do have the right and the responsibility to choose. Choose well my friends and good health to you and those you love.

May Jesus keep us close.

[1] Dr. James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC. About Those Religious Exemptions | Church & Culture, August 26, 2021

[2] Luke 10:27