{"id":14198,"date":"2020-08-20T14:28:46","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T18:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=14198"},"modified":"2020-08-20T14:28:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T18:28:46","slug":"a-coalition-of-over-3000-evangelicals-warn-against-the-politicization-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2020\/08\/a-coalition-of-over-3000-evangelicals-warn-against-the-politicization-of-covid-19","title":{"rendered":"A Coalition of Over 3,000 Evangelicals Warn Against the Politicization of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks\/Flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the last few months, many Christians have been vocal against policies created by health officials to slow the spread of the novel COVID-19 virus. A group of high-profile evangelicals, spanning the fields of religion and science, are signing on to a statement that urges Christians to stop politizing the coronavirus and take the necessary action to stop it. This included getting the vaccine when it’s ready.<\/p>\n

The statement, titled “A Christian Statement on Science for Pandemic Times”, was published by the nonprofit organization BioLogos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We, the undersigned, join together as Christians who uphold the authority of God\u2019s Word and see science as a tool to understand God\u2019s world. We call on all Christians to follow the advice of public health experts and support scientists doing crucial biomedical research on COVID-19,” begins the statement on the BioLogos website.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply concerned about the polarization and politicization of science in the public square when so many lives are at stake. The word \u2018science\u2019 has become a weapon in the culture wars. Scientists are vilified and their findings ignored, while conspiracy theories go viral. Sadly, Christians seem just as susceptible to these trends. Thoughtful Christians may disagree on public policy in response to the coronavirus, but none of us should ignore clear scientific evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, over 3,000 people have signed the statement. This includes influential evangelicals such as William Philips, Claud Alexander, and Samual Rodriquez. Signees range from researchers at universities to presidents of seminaries.<\/p>\n

The signers affirm that they “uphold the authority of God\u2019s Word and see science as a tool to understand God\u2019s world.” They additionally “call on all Christians to follow the advice of public health experts and support scientists doing crucial biomedical research on COVID-19.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last few months, many Christians have been vocal against policies created by health officials to slow the spread of the novel COVID-19 virus. A group of high-profile evangelicals, spanning the fields of religion and science, are signing on to a statement that urges Christians to stop politizing the coronavirus and take the necessary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":14201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2716],"tags":[2692,317,3071,3068,3065],"class_list":["post-14198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian","category-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-evangelicals","tag-politicalization","tag-vaccine","tag-virus"],"yoast_head":"\nA Coalition of Over 3,000 Evangelicals Warn Against the Politicization of COVID-19<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The group of high-profile evangelicals urged Christians to take appropriate action against the virus, which included getting the vaccine once it's ready.\" 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