A medical assistant injects a vaccine in a file photo. | (Photo: Reuters/Michael Buholzer)
As ethical questions raised by COVID-19 vaccines have left many Christians wondering whether they should get vaccinated, three Christian ethicists have offered answers based on some primary considerations believers may have safety and efficacy, complicity with evil, and compliance with authority.
Dealing with the issue of safety and efficacy, Matthew Arbo, C. Ben Mitchell and Andrew T. Walker write that because the stakes are so high, “the scrutiny and oversight have never been more intense.”
Writing for the Public Discourse journal of the Witherspoon Institute, a conservative think tank in Princeton, New Jersey, the three authors quote Dan Barouch, a vaccine researcher at Harvard University: “Never before have there been vaccine trials that have been followed so closely from inception to onset to conduct.”
After turbulent 2020, faith in America faces more big issues bcdemocrat.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bcdemocrat.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
After turbulent 2020, faith in America faces more big issues
by David Crary And Elana Schor, The Associated Press
Posted Dec 18, 2020 10:30 am EDT
Last Updated Dec 18, 2020 at 10:44 am EDT
FILE - In this June 14, 2020 file photo, protesters gather on Hollywood Boulevard for a march organized by black members of the LGBTQ community, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Under Trump there have been some rollbacks in civil rights protections for LGBTQ people that Biden is vowing to restore and expand. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
For many religious denominations in the United States, there were two shared preoccupations in 2020 beyond the usual matters of faith: How to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and how to respond to tumultuous political events.
Perhaps, in the decades to come, some enterprising religious historian will study how the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 affected Christian magazine journalism. Fair warning: You won’t find anything terribly eye-opening in CT’s books coverage.
As the editor chiefly responsible for that coverage, I remember feeling a tad sheepish at our morning check-in meetings during those first few locked-down weeks in March and April. Updates from colleagues throbbed with urgency. They were commissioning timely op-eds analyzing the virus in all its theological and sociopolitical complexity. They were chasing down stories about believers manning the medical front lines and churches transitioning to online services. Meanwhile, my own work carried on as though nothing had changed.