Maps showing Covid deaths associated with the failure to vaccinate and the decline of the Christian Right

CDC, July 2, 2021

I don't have much empathy for people who don't want the vaccine (cf., "Heidi Larson, Vaccine Anthropologist," New Yorker).  Given that greater than 95% of the deaths and hospitalizations from covid now are amongst the unvaccinated, I can't think of a stronger message or indicator of the "self help" benefits of vaccination.

Although I do have a newer appreciation for people saying they won't get vaccinated because it was developed so fast.  I am participating in a Phase 3 vaccine trial for another disease, and the Phase 3 period for the study is three years.  That being said, the technology and science of the successful covid vaccines have been in development for many years, so it's not as simple as "you need a lot of time."

I wasn't really understanding the hoax stuff either (e.g., "South Dakota nurse says some patients deny COVID-19 is real, even as they die from it," Nexstar, and "Their neighbors called covid-19 a hoax. Can these ICU nurses forgive them?," Washington Post), but a piece by NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg, "The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It’s Taking America With It," has given me a lot of insight into this.

I was reading a different article ("A horn-wearing ‘shaman.’ A cowboy evangelist. For some, the Capitol attack was a kind of Christian revolt," Post) which equated the right wing religious fervor around Trump, Qanon, etc. as an indicator of a time of religious fervence, not unlike the period where "new" religions like Mormonism were created in the 1830s.   From the article:

Many forces contributed to the attack on the Capitol, including Trump’s false claims of electoral victory and American anger with institutions. But part of the mix, say experts on American religion, is the fact that the country is in a period when institutional religion is breaking apart, becoming more individualized and more disconnected from denominations, theological credentials and oversight. 

That has created room for what Yale University sociologist Phil Gorski calls a religious “melee, a free for all.” 

“There have been these periods of breakdowns and ferment and reinvention in the past, and every indication is we’re in the middle of one of those now,” he said. “Such moments are periods of opportunity and creativity but also of danger and violence.” 

Some scholars see this era as a spiritually fertile period, like the ones that produced Pentecostalism or Mormonism. Others worry about religious illiteracy and the lack of supervision over everything from theological pronouncements to financial practices.

The Goldberg piece extends this thinking and it reminded me of a pretty insightful paper I wrote as a sophomore in college, comparing the rise of hasidism in Poland in the 1600s in response to pogroms with how the Islam religion remained the one area that opponents to the Shah of Iran could organize within in.  The only major social or cultural institution that the Shah had not challenged was religion, making it a vehicle for change and challenge against the state.  Like how hasidism was more fantastical, Islam in Iran became more forceful, angry, and zealotric.

Evangelical Christianity is on the decline according to research cited by Goldberg.  She contrasts that to the relatively recent time, during the Bush Administration, when it was at its height, and the reaction to social and cultural changes challenging traditional forms of religion has been deep.

At the same time, plenty of people are maintaining their religiosity but disconnecting from more traditional church institutions, removing "guardrails" and peer pressure that can influence their behavior.  From the Post:

Pauline Bauer, Stephen Baker and Jenna Ryan were among the thousands who descended on the Capitol in protest of what they falsely called a stolen election, including some who saw themselves engaged in a spiritual war. For many, their religious beliefs were not tied to any specific church or denomination — leaders of major denominations and megachurches, and even President Donald Trump’s faith advisers, were absent that day. For such people, their faith is individualistic, largely free of structures, rules or the approval of clergy.

Vaccination is just one more element caught up in the decline of the Christian right.