A genuine curiosity

 It sets my mind to wonder. 

I have heard the claims by religious people about how God will protect them from this pandemic. Yet, churches have become one of the most prolific spreaders of the virus. Church members are contracting the virus in record numbers. They are spreading it everywhere they go. They are being hospitalized and dying under this banner of God’s protection. 

Understand, I am not seeking to cast doubt in God’s direction or diminish His ability to protect His people. What I am questioning is whether some believers have misunderstood what God has intended. 

Science (not the enemy of religion) has told us how to protect us from transmission (masks, hand sanitizing, social distancing) and has provided a vaccine to lessen the spread, minimize the symptoms, and increase chances of survival. Yet, by droves, Christians are refusing to avail themselves of these measures, under some obviously misguided attempt to prove their faith. 

I am not trying to challenge your faith. I’m not trying to create doubt in God. I believe it is God given intelligence and knowledge coming directly from it, which were instrumental in discovering how to slow the progression and develop the vaccines. John 1.3 tells us all things (Greek - pas) were made by God, and without Him, nothing was made. The pursuit of understanding (science) is inherent in His creation. 

I am trying to understand. In the face of overwhelming numbers within your own groups, how do you justify still refusing to exhibit even the most basic compassion toward humanity? How do you continue to spread this death? (I know, you will quote some misguided statistics about how low the death rate is, but the number (700,000+ in the US, over 5,000,000 worldwide) continues to rise.) At what number or percentage point will the deaths become meaningful enough for you to become part of a God designed solution? 

Now, if you are going to begin your explanation with banal arguments about inflated numbers, stop there. Death rates for cancer have remained static. Death rates for heart disease have remained static. Cancer patients who were surviving cancer have succumbed to the virus. They are part of the number you will seek to deny. Heart patients who were managing their heart conditions have succumbed to the virus. Again, these are part of the unimaginable deaths from this virus. 

The numbers are not made up or inflated. Most experts agree the numbers are more likely underreported. However, let’s pretend the numbers are inflated. If the numbers are only fifty percent accurate, you are fine with 350,000 (or 2.5M)  deaths from a virus, of which you are doing not even the minimum to mitigate? 

Let’s talk about vaccine injuries. Of the millions of vaccines given, there have been just over six hundred reported verifiable incidents concerning those vaccines. This is an infanticimal percentage of injury versus vaccines. You are more likely to die in your car. Yet, still you drive to work, to the grocery, to the mall, and to church. 

Let’s talk about this vaccine's development. Many misinformation sites bring this into question. 

They talk about the speed at which the vaccine was developed. One must understand this is a different type of vaccine. It is a mRNA vaccine. The development of which began nearly fifty years ago. It isn’t new. It isn’t pseudo science. 

Then, there are the aborted fetus cells used in its development. Research says that is not the case, but, again for the sake of argument, let’s pretend it is the case. You refuse to take the vaccine based on this possibility. If this is your stance for refusal, I trust you also don’t use Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, aspirin, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, ibuprofen, Maalox, Ex-Lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, albuterol, Preparation H, MMR vaccine, Claritin, Zoloft, Prilosec OTC, and azithromycin. All of these were developed using cells from an aborted fetus. These were developed from fetal cell lines grown in a lab from an aborted fetus from fifty years ago. 

I want to understand. I want to know, why, in the face of overwhelming evidence, do you refuse to participate in the medical salvation of millions? How will you answer when you stand before God? I know this is deeply personal. I just want to understand it from your perspective. I’m not interested in rhetoric. I genuinely want to understand the process by which you arrive at your decision.