Can anyone explain why Christians feel the vaccine is wrong?

The person in the article didn't belong to a mainstream Christian church but to one that tends to interpret the Bible literally - as far as I can tell. Certainly all the Church of England folk that I know are in favour of the vaccine.

CofE here and had both jabs. Don’t know of any who haven’t.

Sounds like an extreme, fundamentalist sort of church to me, and they’re more prevalent in America.
I’ve not heard of anything like the same in the U.K., whether standard C of E, Catholic or any other.

I do know an anti vax person who is also a believer in Q anon rubbish but when she put a post on Facebook saying all who have been vaccinated should repent I commented that she had no idea as to why people had it done - their choice and I found her post offensive. Have seen no posts from her since - maybe she has blocked me!

Sadly very common in the US

Cases I know personally leave it all up to god and it's just a bad cold and media exaggerates everything - not saying this is a representative sample

Those people also are trumpers so.... what else can I say

Religion and political preferences are tied together in a lot of cases

Not heard of this before.

I also heard: I refuse to live in fear.

I've got quite a lot of American friends and yes it's all been Americans saying this.
It's pretty disturbing.
I asked them why they have this belief and they won't say. I wanted to know if there's something in the bible?
I've already had the vaccine so it's too late for me if I've done something terrible.

Ii do not think religion has anything to do with it. These people, as others have sad belong to an extremist group and their dominating feature is their far right political views .

A case of twisting religion to match their politics, rather than the other way round

Ahh that makes sense Monica. I mean I did ask them to explain and they refused to.

Septimia

The person in the article didn't belong to a mainstream Christian church but to one that tends to interpret the Bible literally - as far as I can tell. Certainly all the Church of England folk that I know are in favour of the vaccine.

Me too. Everyone I know has had it without any fuss and not just the C of E folk.

This is something else. I just cannot see what bit of the bible they are taking literally to end up like this? If only they would just explain where they're coming from and stop condemning people. They give Christianity (and humanity) a bad name

My sister is a fairly literal Bible interpreter but is happily double vaccinated. She does live in the UK though.

I can remember before Hurricane Katrina - and we all know how that virually destroyed New Orleans - there was television coverage of families staying in their homes despite everyone from police to family begging them to leave because they said they believed in God and he would protect them.

I never saw any follow-up coverage so do not know how they fared. I think for people who feel they have no power or control over their lives and live lives entirely at the mercy of other people, those marginalised, poor and badly educated, then a belief in a God who will care for them and look after them is immensely consoling.

Personally I live by th belief that God helps those who help themselves.

There is a joke, you all probably know it, of the religious man who prayed to God to let him win the lottery and told God of all the good things he would do with the money if he won it. After a couple of weeks, God revelaed homself to the man and said 'Please, meet me halfway, buy a lottery ticket.

This is my response to people who think like those quoted, believe and trust in God, but do something to help him help you - have the vaccine.

OnwardandUpward, you do seem to have a bit of a thing about all this - this is one of several threads you have started on the topic. Might I suggest you set the whole thing to one side and look at some of the other interesting topics on Gransnet? It might help you to stop worrying about the dotty views of some US extremist groups.

Monica, yes I did see a similiar story and it definitely resonates.

Geekesse I can see how it would appear that way and it's because someone very close to me is involved very heavily , unfortunately I have become very bogged down and find that it helps to see what others believe seeing as it's not a "safe" topic offline.

Some Anglican Churches have had vaccination centres

It's a type of cult.

Not part of any established Christian church.

Is it Jehovahs Witness? They won’t have blood transfusions.

Nothing to do with ‘far right groups’ btw just extreme Christian groups who won’t sully their bodies with anything,
Blood, vaccines etc.

I’ve been a Christian for many years (in the UK). I and all the Christians I know are. double-jabbed, apart from one, and she didn’t say it was anti-Christian. She has had quite a few mental health problems and does think irrationally sometimes. (I hope she will change her mind as I am concerned about her catching the virus.)

I don’t understand this weird attitude of some American Christians. I think M0nica might be right - they first have anti-vaccine views and then try to justify them using the Bible, rather than starting with the Bible and getting their anti-vaccine views from there.

I do notice that the founder of the church in the OP article said, "Stephen’s thoughts on vaccines were his own. They do not represent the views and thoughts of Hillsong Church”. He also said, "Many of our pastors, staff, and congregation are fully vaccinated and more will be when vaccines become available to them in their countries”. Stephen Harmon’s view is not the official view of that church.
www.foxtv.com/news/hillsong-founder-says-covid-19-vaccine-is-a-personal-decision-after-church-member-dies

lemongrove

Is it Jehovahs Witness? They won’t have blood transfusions.

No, it's some odd online megachurch I think.

Yes that Hillsong one is a huge church, but I don't know much about it.

As far as I can see I think Monica hit the nail on the head for most people, but there may be something in the bible that is stopping some people. I challenged an American friend why she was condemning me for having the vaccine and she provided me with a link cogforlife.org/prove-it/?fbclid=IwAR1P0TdGbKcfrT3QBAvZ-f8LQQ0g9idm45IvS8gN_E6SHRUl2KR9qt4W5Qc

To be honest it read like gobbledygook to me, but I think that the standards of the FDA in America are not so good as our standards here in UK so maybe that's another reason why?

I wish I didn't have an autistic brain!

OnwardandUpward

I've got quite a lot of American friends and yes it's all been Americans saying this.
It's pretty disturbing.
I asked them why they have this belief and they won't say. I wanted to know if there's something in the bible?
I've already had the vaccine so it's too late for me if I've done something terrible.

This photo is from Australia. I know plenty of Christians who have had the vaccine.