Sandsmark is not alone in pointing out that Christianity is not an anti-vax religion. “If they look to the moral reasoning and sources of authority within their traditions,” Sandsmark writes, “they will hear a message on vaccines that differs considerably from those on offer by many Republican leaders.” Large-scale vaccine skepticism is a new phenomenon, but is it a religious phenomenon? As The New York Times’s Ruth Graham reports, evidence suggests “most objections described as religious to vaccines are really a matter of personal - and secular - beliefs.” In an article titled “Religious Opposition to Vaccines Is Rooted in Politics, Not Tradition,” UVA’s Evan Sandsmark argues that vaccine refusal among Christian conservatives has more to do with their politics than their religious convictions. As Stanford’s Michelle Mello observes, “the group of people who is opposed to the vaccine now is just orders of magnitude larger than it has ever been for any other vaccine, and much broader in its reach across different religions or different age groups. Though more Christians in the United States became skeptical of vaccines in the 2000s, the number of mainstream Christian denominations seeking religious exemptions in the past year is astonishing. In September, almost a third of American Protestants said they were unvaccinated. By contrast, for the COVID-19 vaccines, the majority of Americans seeking religious exemptions are either evangelicals or conservative Catholics. While there has been religiously motivated vaccine opposition in the past, it came mainly from comparatively small religious groups. Another question that has been debated is whether or not these requests for religious exemptions are, in fact, religious, or whether people are simply using First Amendment laws as a pretext to get out of vaccine requirements.Īs a recent study shows, 10% of Americans believe that getting the COVID-19 vaccine conflicts with their religious beliefs. Legal scholars have discussed whether these religious exemptions are precedented and ethicists have discussed whether or not they are wise. In recent months, there has been a great deal of debate about religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine requirements.