Leading evangelical & rabid Trumper, Robert Jeffress, comes out in favor of COVID vaccination.

[babylonsister]

Last edited Sun Sep 19, 2021, 08:30 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/9/18/2053071/-Leading-evangelical-rabid-Trumper-Robert-Jeffress-comes-out-in-favor-of-COVID-vaccination

Leading evangelical & rabid Trumper, Robert Jeffress, comes out in favor of COVID vaccination.
TheCriticalMind
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Saturday September 18, 2021 · 7:24 PM EDT


Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, has announced that he and his staff “are neither offering nor encouraging members to seek religious exemptions from the vaccine mandates.” At first blush, this would seem to be swimming against the tide of evangelical opinion that the COVID vaccine is a mortal sin because they say it contains fetal cells. So why has Jeffress taken the stand he has? First, a little background.

There are two kinds of conservative evangelical leaders. Those who have a deep and abiding faith in God and do their level best to lead lives that would make Jesus proud. And those who cynically use Christianity as a tool to amass power and wealth. The vast majority of American conservative evangelicals are the second kind. And Jeffress is among their number.

He is a long-time backer of Trump. Even after the January 6th Capitol insurrection, he was tweeting his support for the now ex-President. Jeffress is an advocate of Trump as a modern-day Cyrus — the Persian Emperor who, although not Jewish himself, freed the C.6th BCE Jews from their captivity in Babylon and allowed them to build a temple in Israel.

The point of Jeffress's argument is that, although Trump was personally a moral pig, he was enabling Jeffress to pursue his misogynistic, homophobic, anti-immigrant crusade. “An enemy of my enemy is my friend”, if you will. This enthusiasm for Trump was instrumental in whipping his congregation into ecstatic support for the serial failure. It was a scene repeated in megachurches from coast to coast. Which raises the question, why is Jeffress advocating for something so disturbing to his base?

The answer has nothing to do with moral clarity or doing the right thing. It comes from a sense that the right is losing control of the vaccine mandate. COVID is becoming a political millstone for them. And most importantly it is losing them the political support to enact their hateful agenda.

more...

[TlalocW]

1. Undoubtedly

He saw a 0.1% drop in donations due to his followers dying from COVID and panicked.

TlalocW

[RockRaven]

2. 4 words: "Dead people can't tithe."

That is all.

[brewens]

3. Too late shitstain! You can't unbrainwash them so easy. You guys inoculate them against that all

their lives. That's why you need to get them as little kids. Oh. And to groom them for church camp too.

[JohnQFunk]

4. Hell just froze over, sorta.

Jeffress may be a Christofascist, but he is in this case a realist. It's about his bottom line at the end of the day.

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. He's a goddam profit.

Pro-vax, Jesus sez., give me money,

[comradebillyboy]

6. Jeffress saw the hand writing on the wall.

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin: You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

[Bleacher Creature]

7. Money talks.

And dead people can't fill the collection plates.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Conservative Baptist Pastor Sees "No Credible Religious Argument" Against Vaccines

It is clear under Jewish law that there is no religious restriction against vaccines or masking. There is a good argument that masking is actually required under Jewish law. I was amused to see that TFG's favorite nut case preacher agrees with this position

Link to tweet

Several prominent church leaders recently announced that they weren’t granting exemptions, nor did they think their faiths were incompatible with the vaccine. “There is no credible religious argument against the vaccines,” the Rev. Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist pastor, told the Associated Press in an email this week. Jeffress is best known for his conservative views and was a prominent supporter of Donald Trump.

People are seeking the exemptions in large numbers. The Los Angeles Police Department said that 2,600 employees are seeking faith-based exemptions. Washington state is reporting that 3,800 of its 60,000 employees are doing the same.

But several large churches have announced that they will not be granting any exemptions, including the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Previously, Catholics, who are anti-abortion, expressed concern that coronavirus vaccine research used fetal cell lines. However, the vaccine itself does not contain any and the Vatican announced that Catholics may receive the vaccine in good conscience.

In response to the flood of requests to be exempt on the basis of religion, some employers are pushing back. One Arkansas hospital is asking anyone who objects because of the fetal cell line issue to also abstain from over-the-counter drugs that have been tested in a similar fashion. United Airlines announced that anyone who receives an exemption will either be reassigned or forced to go on temporary unpaid leave.

The state of New York simply did not include a religious exemption in its mandate for employees and is now facing a lawsuit. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has vowed to fight it, saying: “I’m not aware of a sanctioned religious exemption from any organized religion…Everybody from the pope on down is encouraging people to get vaccinated.”

[vercetti2021]

9. Well dead people can't give him money so

Got to make sure you can save your damn income somehow

[monkeyman1]

10. Baptist day late & go piss up a rope ! don't like bible thumper's !

to damn lazy to work !

[ShazzieB]

11. Oh, I so HOPE ta covd s becoming political millstone for the right!

The answer has nothing to do with moral clarity or doing the right thing. It comes from a sense that the right is losing control of the vaccine mandate. COVID is becoming a political millstone for them.

I really, really hope this is true, for a multicipicity of reasons!

[Midnight Writer]

12. Saying there is no religious reason not to get the shot is not "coming out in favor".

He's punting the ball to avoid responsibility.

He doesn't want his flock questioning why God (and by extension, Jeffries) didn't protect them.