• Latest
  • Trending
cup with red liquid

‘The Blood Of Jesus Is My Vaccine:’ How a Fringe Group of Christians Hijacks Faith In a War Against Science

August 9, 2021
Twitter user posted image of Jesus sitting next to Donald Trump in court

Trump Shares Fake Courtroom Sketch of Himself and White Jesus; Users Respond With ‘Fixed’ Versions of Satan, Black Jesus

October 3, 2023
iraq wedding fire

Wedding Fire That Killed More Than 100 in Iraqi Christian Community Prompts Letter From Pope

October 2, 2023
Pastor Albert Tate has been placed on a leave of absence by his church board for inappropriate text messages and questionable comments

Fellowship Monrovia Church Puts Pastor Albert Tate on Leave Over ‘Inappropriate’ Text Messages

October 2, 2023
Marla Frederick

Religion Scholar Marla Frederick Is First Black Woman to Lead Harvard Divinity School in 200 Years

September 30, 2023
faith leaders

‘God Will Work a Miracle’ — Thousands of Foreign-Born Faith Leaders Could Be Forced to Leave US

September 30, 2023
teacher classroom students

What Black Teachers Face Today Isn’t Much Different From What They Faced During Segregation

September 29, 2023
woman on mic

Professor Charrise Barron Talks Teaching Protest Music’s Evolution From Gospel to Hip-Hop

September 28, 2023
Julie Chen Moonves

‘Big Brother’ Host Julie Chen Moonves Tells How She ‘Found Jesus’

September 27, 2023
Asian Americans

Fear of Ridicule, Desire to Fit In Prompt Some Asian Americans to Partly Hide Heritage

September 27, 2023
laptop

Evangelical Organization Launches ‘Racial Justice Assessment’ Tool

September 27, 2023
megachurches

Are New Jersey’s Megachurches the Answer to the Crisis of Christianity?

September 27, 2023
Christian rapper Dee-1

Rapper Dee-1 Starts Artist/Scholar Residency at Tufts University After Nabbing Nasir Jones Fellowship at Harvard

September 26, 2023
Faithfully Magazine
  • Members
    • Log In
    • Member Home
    • See All Members
    • What’s New
    • Start or Join a Group
    • Your Freebies
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Contact Us
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Exclusives
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • NJ News
  • Listen & Watch
  • Shop
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • Clothing
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • Newsletter
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Contact Us
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Exclusives
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • NJ News
  • Listen & Watch
  • Shop
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • Clothing
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • Newsletter
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
Home Health

‘The Blood Of Jesus Is My Vaccine:’ How a Fringe Group of Christians Hijacks Faith In a War Against Science

FM Editors by FM Editors
August 9, 2021
in Health, Opinion & Analysis, Wellness
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
cup with red liquid

)Photo: Jasmin NeUnsplash)

60
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It

By Robyn J. Whitaker, The Conversation

“The blood of Jesus is my vaccine” read one of the signs at a recent protest against lockdown regulations in Sydney. While our tendency might be to roll our eyes at such ridiculous anti-science views, these sentiments have a long and complicated history in the Christian tradition.

On social media platforms, a small number of Christians are offering a pastiche of biblical symbols to link the idea of Jesus’s blood and protection. In one video, a man claims we know the blood of Jesus will protect Christians in the 21st century from COVID because the blood of the Passover lamb protected the Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 12). As an analogy, it is a stretch.

Kolina Koltai, a vaccine misinformation researcher with the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, points out that appealing to people’s beliefs and values in spreading vaccine misinformation is particularly potent. Such views can be extremely hard to combat, because doing so is perceived as an attack on someone’s core beliefs.

RelatedArticles

teacher classroom students

What Black Teachers Face Today Isn’t Much Different From What They Faced During Segregation

September 29, 2023
abortion protest

Midwives Will Be Able to Perform Early Abortions If NJ Plan Moves Forward

September 26, 2023

While for some, Jesus’s “blood” is spiritually invoked through prayer, other misinformation links the protective power of Jesus more explicitly to taking communion (or the Eucharist). Taking communion daily, such people claim, prevents you from getting sick from COVID.

Communion is a Christian ritual in which token amounts of bread and wine are consumed to recall Jesus’s last meal with his disciples before dying on a cross. While different Christian traditions hold a variety of theological views, at the heart of communion is the idea that bread and wine are ritually shared as a way to spiritually connect, to have “communion,” with Jesus and with one another. The bread symbolizes Jesus’s body and the wine his blood. Drinking communion wine then is drinking the blood that saves, according to these fringe views.

Melbourne Anglican priest Peter French told me that, in the past year, he has had to refuse requests from people who want to buy communion bread and wine from his church in the belief that taking it daily will prevent them from contracting COVID. Anglicans, we should note, do not teach that communion will protect you from sickness and the Archbishop of Canterbury has urged people to be vaccinated.

The association of the Eucharist and healing were around long before COVID. In 2013, Pope Francis addressed exactly this issue in a sermon stating the Eucharist is not a “magic rite,” but a way to encounter Jesus.

Where does this association of communion and healing come from? Nowhere explicitly, yet the Christian tradition has a long association of communion and health metaphors.

In the second century, Bishop Ignatius wrote the Eucharist is the “medicine of immortality” and the “antidote” to death. Ignatius’s “medicine” is one that brings eternal life rather than freedom from physical suffering.

In the third century, Bishop Cyprian claimed the blood of Jesus has pharmacological benefits, being “health-giving” and superior to the benefits of ordinary wine. The medicinal effects of wine were widely known in antiquity, often being a safer drink than water. But here we have Christians claiming something more for the wine that represents Jesus’s blood, even if their claim is still primarily a spiritual one.

Andrew McGowan, professor at Yale Divinity School, has written extensively on the history of the Eucharist. He says:

The Eucharist is always an enacted sign of the love and regard for community shown by Jesus, not a talisman for personal gain or benefit.

In this sense, it is only like the vaccine in that it exists for the good of the whole community, not ourselves as individuals.

McGowan notes there are more early Christians stories indicating that wrongly taking the Eucharist could do you harm than there are ones suggesting communion will bring healing. In several post-biblical apocryphal sources, bread and wine are shared after a healing miracle as a means of thanksgiving and confirming faith, but it does not bring physical healing.

Similarly today, communion is regularly administered to the sick or dying. It serves as a reminder of Jesus’s salvific action to people of faith, not as a magic pill or healing potion.

Indeed, traditional Christian churches usually anoint the sick with oil for healing or have other prayers for healing that do not involve communion. However, one can see how superstitious ideas developed linking recovery from illness to the body and blood of Jesus. To do so is to conflate spiritual well-being and physical health. While spiritual health can correlate with other forms of health (mental, physical), it is not the same thing.

The vast majority of religious leaders are urging people to be vaccinated. No serious Christian teaches that taking communion will magically protect a person against illness.

Yet, the line between taking the Eucharist (the blood of Jesus) for spiritual wholeness and taking it as a magical potion that will protect one physically remains thin enough to be abused by irresponsible people touting conspiracy theories.

To do so is preying on the vulnerable, a most anti-Christian activity in the guise of religion.The Conversation

Editor’s note: This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.


Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College

Leave your vote

0 Points
Upvote

Browse and manage your votes from your Member Profile Page


Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report
Advertisement
Ancestry US
60
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It
FM Editors

FM Editors

Faithfully Magazine is a fresh, bold and exciting news and culture publication that covers issues, conversations and events impacting Christian communities of color.

More Articles

baptism new york cancel
Opinion & Analysis

Cancel Culture Looks a Lot Like Old-Fashioned Church Discipline

April 29, 2021
teacher classroom students
Opinion & Analysis

What Black Teachers Face Today Isn’t Much Different From What They Faced During Segregation

September 29, 2023
three women
Opinion & Analysis

White Evangelical Millennials Losing Faith in the Conservative Culture Wars

June 22, 2021

Discussion about this post

Upcoming Events

Oct 5
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm EDT

Event: Black Religion and Critical Theory Colloquium

Oct 10
7:00 am - 11:30 pm EDT

Event: Free Virtual Church Mental Health Summit

View Calendar

Trending

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Tony Evans and Carla Crummie engaged to be married

Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death

September 12, 2023
Pastor Albert Tate has been placed on a leave of absence by his church board for inappropriate text messages and questionable comments

Fellowship Monrovia Church Puts Pastor Albert Tate on Leave Over ‘Inappropriate’ Text Messages

October 2, 2023
Twitter user posted image of Jesus sitting next to Donald Trump in court

Trump Shares Fake Courtroom Sketch of Himself and White Jesus; Users Respond With ‘Fixed’ Versions of Satan, Black Jesus

October 3, 2023
faith leaders

‘God Will Work a Miracle’ — Thousands of Foreign-Born Faith Leaders Could Be Forced to Leave US

September 30, 2023
jackie hill perry tbn fruits of the spirit heterosexuality

Sexuality Has Nothing to Do With Salvation, Jackie Hill Perry Says in TBN Talk About ‘Gay Girl, Good God’

October 8, 2021
Marla Frederick

Religion Scholar Marla Frederick Is First Black Woman to Lead Harvard Divinity School in 200 Years

September 30, 2023
Twitter user posted image of Jesus sitting next to Donald Trump in court

Trump Shares Fake Courtroom Sketch of Himself and White Jesus; Users Respond With ‘Fixed’ Versions of Satan, Black Jesus

October 3, 2023
iraq wedding fire

Wedding Fire That Killed More Than 100 in Iraqi Christian Community Prompts Letter From Pope

October 2, 2023
Pastor Albert Tate has been placed on a leave of absence by his church board for inappropriate text messages and questionable comments

Fellowship Monrovia Church Puts Pastor Albert Tate on Leave Over ‘Inappropriate’ Text Messages

October 2, 2023
Marla Frederick

Religion Scholar Marla Frederick Is First Black Woman to Lead Harvard Divinity School in 200 Years

September 30, 2023
faith leaders

‘God Will Work a Miracle’ — Thousands of Foreign-Born Faith Leaders Could Be Forced to Leave US

September 30, 2023
teacher classroom students

What Black Teachers Face Today Isn’t Much Different From What They Faced During Segregation

September 29, 2023

Most Shared Articles

  • Can Money-Making Microgrids Empower Black Churches to Close the Clean Energy Gap?...
  • Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death...
  • Kirk Franklin Finally Finds His Birth Father After 53 Years...
  • Christians Plea for Prayer, Help Amid Haiti’s Surging Gang Violence...
  • ‘Color of Compromise’ Author Jemar Tisby Comments on Quitting Kendi’s Antiracism C...
  • New and Upcoming Books: ‘Sacred Self-Care,’ ‘Unwind,’ ‘Damaged But Not...

From The Archive

lamor whitehead, brooklyn bishop and pastor

Preacher Robbed of Jewelry During Livestream Shows Off His Gucci-Louis-Fendi ‘Prayer Closet’

by FM Editors
August 2, 2022
Michelle Obama
Uncategorized

How First Lady Melania Trump Compares to Michelle Obama

by FM Editors
April 27, 2017
Christian author and preacher Dr. Voddie Baucham
Web Exclusives

‘Fault Lines’ Author Voddie Baucham Confused or Making Things Up, Richard Delgado Says in Response to Misquote on ‘Righteous Actions’ of Whites

by Nicola A. Menzie
August 3, 2021
Castle
Inspiration

How a ‘Keeper of the Castle’ Mentality Holds the Church Back From Racial Healing and Unity

by FM Editors
July 7, 2020
faithfully magazine header logo
Editorial Fellowship

Apply to Join Us as a Faithfully Magazine Editorial Fellow

by FM Editors
April 4, 2021

Who’s Online

There are no users currently online
Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram
Faithfully Magazine

Faithfully Magazine is a news and culture publication centered on Christian communities of color.

Recent News

  • Trump Shares Fake Courtroom Sketch of Himself and White Jesus; Users Respond With ‘Fixed’ Versions of Satan, Black Jesus

Category

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

  • From The Magazine
  • Inspiration
  • News
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Profiled
  • Q&As
  • Remember
  • Specials
  • New Jersey
  • Listen & Watch
  • Web Exclusives
  • Shop
    • Clothing
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • FM Live Events
    • Community Events
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • About Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Members
    • Log In
    • Your Freebies
  • Subscribe to Faithfully Magazine
  • Newsletter
No Result
View All Result

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering on our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS

Add New Playlist

Log In

Sign In

Login with Facebook
Login with Twitter
Forgot password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Back to Login

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Accept

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
Send this to a friend