IS BEING PRO-VACCINE INCOMPATIBLE WITH BEING PRO-LIFE? - #1

We recognise there are people in our congregations with genuine concerns about the ethics or the risks of the Covid vaccines. We believe this is a matter of personal conscience, but to help think through some of the issues involved, here is a useful article by John Stevens National Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches.

As I write, on 19th January 2021, more than 4 million people in the UK have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The government is on track to accomplish its objective of vaccinating everyone in the four most vulnerable groups by mid-February. Vaccination is seen as the strategy that will enable the eventually lifting of the lockdown and a return to normality, because the NHS will not then be at risk of being overwhelmed by COVID patients.

Most Christians have welcomed the provision of these vaccines, and the hope that they offer of a return to normality. We live in an ordered world created by God in which scientific research is possible. His purpose was for mankind to advance in culture and technology, and his common grace enables humanity to restrain many of the consequences of the Fall in ways that we take for granted on a daily basis.

However, there are many who remain sceptical about the vaccines, and who say that they will refuse to be vaccinated. Recent research showed up to 72% of black people and 43% of Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups said they less likely to have a Covid vaccine. The average “vaccine hesitancy” across the UK is 24%.

There are a range of reasons why people might be hesitant to take the COVID vaccine. Some argue that we should not take vaccines at all but rather ‘live by faith’ and trust God for personal protection from COVID. This seems spiritual but is not demanded by Scripture and is a denial of the way that God works through the material world he created. The Bible endorses medicine and the work of doctors. We trust that God will work through material means for our good. We are no more required to demonstrate faith by forgoing medical interventions than we are to refuse to shop for food and trust that the lord will provide manna from heaven for our daily sustenance.