In his best-selling book,
The Year of Living Biblically, secular Jew A. J. Jacobs endeavors to follow biblical laws literally for a year. His escapades with mixed fabrics, stoning Sabbath-breakers, handling serpents, and honoring widows are enthralling and often sidesplitting, and they led to a CBS sitcom spinoff.
In one entry, he explains his attempt to avoid the ritual impurity associated with genital discharges while his wife is menstruating (Lev. 15:19–23). Unamused, she makes it a point to sit in every chair in the house before he returns home. Ultimately, he opts for a portable Handy Seat, because really, who can be sure who might have just sat in any particular subway seat or restaurant booth? (Rachel Held Evans completed a similar tongue-in-cheek challenge in her 2012 book,
As COVID-19 vaccination rates slowed this spring, Americans’ attention turned toward the groups less likely to get the shot, including white evangelicals.
Black Protestants were initially among the most skeptical toward the vaccine, but they grew significantly more open to it during the first few months of the year, while white evangelicals’ hesitancy held steady.
With African Americans, many credit robust campaigns targeting Black neighborhoods, launching vaccination clinics in Black churches, and convening discussions featuring prominent Black Christian voices for reducing rates of hesitancy. So for those eager to see higher levels of vaccination, the question became: Are white evangelical leaders doing enough to engage their own?
Hear from Community Experts in This Week’s Launch of “Life Interrupted: Navigating What’s Next”
Get tips and ask questions in this HONOLULU Magazine free mental health webinar from 1-2 p.m. Thursday, May 6
May 4, 2021
The pandemic changed our community and our world dramatically in 2020. Now, our lives are shifting again as we figure out our best next steps. This opening session tackles the big picture: Thursday, May 6: “Changes for Home, Work, Community.”
We saw our world shift in so many ways: work from home, school at home; losing jobs or letting them take over our lives; missing many milestones while connecting in different and sometime more meaningful ways; seeing so much of some family members while missing others. Experts say the world and our part of it will continue to adapt in the coming months. How do we move forward safely and cautiously as we strive to recover some of what we lost and find a better path forward.
Jim Braker said he gets his COVID-19 news from Victory Channel, a self-described faith-based Christian television network, and doctors on Fox News and on the internet.
Evansville resident Sally Herron, a conservative activist, said she distrusts what she calls the liberal national news media and prefers to do her own research. Herron watches documentaries, she says, and talks to people who aren t motivated by a desire to make money off the pandemic. I have a very good friend that her daughter works for AstraZeneca, and she told her mom, ‘Do not take the vaccine, she said.
Herron makes accusations. The vaccines have aborted fetal tissue in them, she said. The contention is disputed by infectious disease experts who say vaccine manufacturers did use fetal cell lines. Herron also believes a vaccine could change her DNA. She calls the vaccines gene therapy. She believes they will change and attack recipients immune systems, and people will die.