Blaming conservative religious leaders for anti-vaxxer behaviour is wrongheaded
There is nothing in any sect of any mainstream religion – Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism – that speaks against vaccinations for disease prevention
Here we go again, Chilliwack making the provincial news for people getting highly infectious, entirely preventable diseases thanks to one anti-science ideology or another.
“We leave it in God’s hands.”
That from Rev. Adriaan Geuze of the Reformed Congregation of North America in Rosedale a decade ago when hundreds of measles cases hit elementary-school aged children at the affiliated Mount Cheam Christian School, a school with by far the lowest vaccination in the entire region.
At that time, more than half of Lower Mainland elementary schools had vaccinations rates of 90 per cent or higher, a threshold needed for herd immunity. Of most of those below that rate, most were in the 70 and 80 per cent range. Seven schools had rates of 60 per cent or lower. Mount Cheam Christian’s was barely double digits.
Why any kid at Mount Cheam Christian is vaccinated at all is actually curious since this is a non-questioning, devoutly adherent community that do what they are told.
“If it is in his will that somehow we get a contagious disease, like in this case the measles, there are other ways, of course, to avoid this. If (we get sick), he can also heal us from it,” he said in an interview with the Vancouver Sun in 2014.
A decade later, two days ago on June 24, 2025, Fraser Health reported that measles infections were confirmed in three unvaccinated Chilliwack residents since June 20. These were locally acquired cases with no reported travel history.
Same story again?
A year into the pandemic, Fraser Health declared a third COVID-19 outbreak at an assisted living facility run by insulated anti-vaxxer Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Chilliwack.
A family member of a resident of Sunset Manor told me that, big surprise, the care aides and residents refused COVID-19 vaccinations for religious reasons, all thanks to the indoctrination of lone medieval hucksters such as Geuze.
While the level of community irresponsibility from the Dutch Reformed Church specifically and others in the anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist camp is staggering and maddening, it is wrong to blame Christians or religious people in general.
Why do these radical ideologues drive expensive modern pickup trucks, use pieces of million-dollar farm equipment to harvest crops, use iPhones and computers and social media yet eschew science in this one narrow field, scientifcally proven safe vaccinations?
There is nothing logical about it. I wrote an op-ed on this topic in 2021 starting with the famous Basil Fawlty line from the eponymous British comedy: “Don’t mention the war.”
The quote has become an idiom to refer to any topic too divisive to talk about. As we learned in the pandemic as some people lost friends, family members became estranged, otherwise sane and reasonable people went off the tinfoil-hat wearing deep end, maybe we can’t talk about vaccine hesitancy let alone religion and immunization but we have to.
Here is the thing, while it is often implied that conservative Christians such as evangelicals and these Reformed church folks are the problem, this is a gross generalization not accurately reflecting the vaccine hesitancy we see.
As I’ve said before, anomalies get reported in the news because that’s what news is, but even a few hundred anti-vaxxer familes having sick kids in one school in one city is a blip on the radar. The problem of course, is that as with many aspects of life, as Malcolm Gladwell taught us in The Tipping Point, small groups can have outsized impacts.
Moving, however, from an observation that this radical religious sect is causing staggering health consequences to the implication that all religious or even all Christian or even all social conservative Christians are the problem is wrongheaded.
A Vanderbilt University analysis early on in the pandemic showed that the vast majority of Christian denominations have no theological objection to vaccination, that includes Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans, Quakers, Presbyterians and more.
Disgraced former school trustee Barry Neufeld who has several conspiracy theories rattling around his confused mind was openly and proudly and anti-vaxxer during the pandemic. He also said Canada’s chief medical health officer Theresa Tam is trans and therefore shouldn’t be trusted. Neufeld is also a loud and proud member of the Orthodox Church, so it would be easy to assume that’s where he got his from.
But get this, in September 2021, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, the highest clergy member of the Greek Orthodox religion in the U.S., met with bishops from across the country on a video conference. The group unanimously affirmed that not only does the church permit vaccinations against diseases but “encourages Her Faithful, after medical tests and approbations, to be vaccinated with the approved vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.”
Even more importantly, the statement released said: “There is no exemption in the Orthodox Church for Her faithful from any vaccination for religious reasons, including the coronavirus vaccine. For this reason, letters of exemption for the vaccination against the coronavirus for religious purposes issued by priests of the Archdiocese of America have no validity, and furthermore, no clergy are to issue such religious exemption letters for any reason.”
Pope Francis urged his Catholic followers to get the COVID-19 vaccine and said that getting the shot is an “act of love.”
National organizations speaking for the leadership of Judaism, Islam, and other Christian sects all spoke in favour of vaccination. The Buddhist Dalai Lama called the COVID-19 vaccine that he received in India in March, shared in a video on his YouTube page, “very, very helpful.”
The Vanderbilt University Medical Center listed a handful of faith-healing denominations with theological objections to vaccinations: Faith Tabernacle; Church of the First Born; Faith Assembly; End Time Ministries; and Church of Christ, Scientist.
These are the loopiest of the barely Christian cults.
The only relatively mainstream Christian-based church with a theological objection mentioned? Dutch Reformed. But even here, even within the Dutch Reformed church there is division.
“Dutch Reformed congregations [have] a tradition of declining immunizations,” according to the Vanderbilt analysis. “Some members decline vaccination on the basis that it interferes with divine providence. However, others within the faith accept immunization as a gift from God to be used with gratitude.”
Back to the Eastern Fraser Valley, Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl came out strongly against vaccination passports and “mandatory vaccinations.”
“Justin Trudeau’s vaccine mandate is discriminatory, coercive and must be opposed,” Strahl Tweeted on Oct. 6, 2021 Tweet. “We must continue to demand reasonable exemptions and accommodations, like rapid testing, for those unable or unwilling to be vaccinated.”
As Conservatives clearly stated during the election campaign, Justin Trudeau’s vaccine mandate is discriminatory, coercive and must be opposed. We must continue to demand reasonable exemptions and accommodations, like rapid testing, for those unable or unwilling to be vaccinated. https://t.co/wWIHZY0ECP
— Mark Strahl (@markstrahl) October 8, 2021
The key word here is “unwilling.” Why would anyone be unwilling to be vaccinated?
What he refused to say openly but what coursed through Strahl’s narrative on this subject ever since he helped the PPC candidate in the federal election cancel an in-person all-candidates meeting, is that for him it had nothing to do with science or mandates or Trudeau. It was about the religious beliefs of some of his voters who are unwilling to get vaccinated. It was about the Dutch Reformed folks in Rosedale.
But as the Vanderbilt University website quote from above makes clear, even in the Dutch Reformed Church, some accept vaccination as a “gift from God.”
In October 2021, a statement from the Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers struck me as poignant: “We wish to clarify that there is nothing in the Bible, in our historic confessions of faith, in our theology or in our ecclesiology that justifies granting a religious exemption from vaccinations against COVID-19....
“From the earliest biblical writings, in the words of Jesus Christ and in ecclesial writings since Jesus’ ascension, the command to love God and love our neighbour is paramount. Vaccinations allow us to live out this command.”
Statement from Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers: “We wish to clarify that there is nothing in the Bible, in our historic confessions of faith, in our theology or in our ecclesiology that justifies granting a religious exemption from vaccinations against COVID-19….”
— Paul J. Henderson (@PeeJayAitch) October 9, 2021
Jesus loves vaccinations. Who knew?
My Tweet of this quote went near viral, receiving more than 7,000 likes and 1,700 comments and retweets sparking an interesting discussion narrowly focused on Mennonites and vaccinations. Someone pointed out the Anglican Church of Canada came out strongly pro-vaccination, and was even involved in a project to get COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries.
Love thy neighbour indeed.
Religion is a deeply personal thing, and I know the subject became divisive within fellow employees in some businesses, friend groups, even within some families.
If you are afraid of vaccinations because you’ve been tricked by pandemic disinformation spread by bad actors such as Joe Rogan and Donald Trump or Chris Sky and Maxime Bernier, I can’t help you. You also probably think birds aren’t real and the sky is full of chemtrails and Justin Trudeau eats babies.
But if you have been tricked by a charismatic religious leader into an anti-science position when it comes to health and medicine, you need to know that anti-vaxx is not a religious position except in some very small circles.
Your faith does not weight in on vaccines.
Your holy book can’t be interpreted that way.
Your church leaders are almost 100 per cent supportive of medical science.
If you are afraid of needles, just say so. Don’t blame it on your interpretation of your pastor’s particular interpretation spewed on Sunday at your local church where you worship your particular god.
Basil Fawlty was wrong. Some say we shouldn’t talk about it, but like the war, maybe we should.
According to Fraser Health
In Chilliwack, Members of the public may have been exposed to measles if they were in the following locations:
- Mark’s (45737 Luckakuck Way) from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on June 16, 2025
- Redwing Shoe Store (8249 Eagle Landing Pkwy) from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on June 16, 2025
- Walmart (8249 Eagle Landing Pkwy) from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on June 16, 2025
- Ahmad Barber Shop (7325 Vedder Rd) from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on June 18, 2025
And if you were born in 1970 or later and have not had two doses of measles vaccine, you should get a dose of measles vaccine right away, free of charge. It is most effective if received within three days of being exposed but still can be received after that.
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Paul J. Henderson
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