{"id":14901,"date":"2021-04-12T16:14:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T20:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=14901"},"modified":"2021-04-12T16:14:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T20:14:16","slug":"pete-buttigieg-maybe-a-vaccine-is-part-of-gods-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2021\/04\/pete-buttigieg-maybe-a-vaccine-is-part-of-gods-plan","title":{"rendered":"Pete Buttigieg: \u2018Maybe a Vaccine is Part of God\u2019s Plan\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Gage Skidmore\/Flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The transportation secretary is encouraging evangelical Christians who are concerned about getting the COVID-19 vaccine to take into consideration that it might be \u201cpart of God\u2019s plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buttigieg, who is Christian, was asked by \u201cState of the Union\u201d host Jake Tapper about the high number of white evangelicals who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. According to a poll released last month by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about 40 percent of white evangelicals say they won\u2019t get a COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard people I care about saying, you know, \u2018If I\u2019m faithful, God\u2019s going to take care of me,\u2019\u201d Buttigieg said. \u201cAnd I guess what I would hope that they might consider is that maybe a vaccine is part of God\u2019s plan for how you\u2019re going to take care of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buttigieg is aware that his opinion on this topic may not persuade many white evangelicals to get the vaccine. Still, he urged faith leaders to be more vocal about their support of vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, I have to admit that it\u2019s unlikely that an official like me is going to be persuasive to somebody who maybe doesn\u2019t feel like Washington has been speaking to them for a long time,\u201d Buttigieg said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of pastoral care is about supporting those who look to you for guidance,\u201d he expressed. \u201cSo I hope anybody who is looking after a community of people, including a faith community, will consider ways to help guide them toward steps that can protect them and protect those around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times<\/em>, millions of white evangelical adults in the U.S. do not plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
\nWhile several well-known evangelical leaders have been vocal about their support of the vaccine, including Franklin Graham and Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, other evangelical pastors have been wary of taking a public stance.<\/p>\n

Tenets of faith, mistrust of science, and politics all play a role in resistance. As vaccines have become more widely available and virus variants continue to develop, the vaccination issue has taken on new urgency.<\/p>\n

The findings in the AP-NORC Center poll have prompted concern even within some evangelical circles. The National Association of Evangelicals, which covers more than 45,000 local churches, will work with media outlets, host events, and distribute public messages to build trust among doubtful evangelicals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pathway to ending the pandemic runs through the evangelical church,\u201d said Curtis Chang, a former pastor and missionary who also founded ChristiansAndTheVaccine.com, which powers this new initiative.<\/p>\n

Given white evangelicals comprise an estimated 20 percent of the U.S. population, resistance to vaccination by even half of them would significantly hamper efforts to achieve herd immunity, Chang said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The transportation secretary is encouraging evangelical Christians who are concerned about getting the COVID-19 vaccine to take into consideration that it might be \u201cpart of God\u2019s plan.\u201d Buttigieg, who is Christian, was asked by \u201cState of the Union\u201d host Jake Tapper about the high number of white evangelicals who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":13498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1660,2692,3318,317,2532,3068,2883],"class_list":["post-14901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian-news","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-vaccines","tag-evangelicals","tag-pete-buttigieg","tag-vaccine","tag-white-evangelicals"],"yoast_head":"\nPete Buttigieg: \u2018Maybe a Vaccine is Part of God\u2019s 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