Congregations often attend to the physical as well as spiritual health of their members. Local houses of worship â pre-COVID â often served as venues to screen for hypertension and educate those living with diabetes.
Now, most have adopted the need to encourage mask wearing, promoting social distancing and providing remote support for members who no longer feel comfortable at in-person worship.
The new year presents an additional challenge as mass vaccinations, which are at this writing already topping several million doses given, become a new health issue for congregations.
There were some initial objections, nationally, to the first COVID-19 shots, based on some purported association with the use of a cell line from aborted fetuses. But Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese, assured local parishioners that accepting these vaccinations is morally allowed.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020 at 5:09 pm | א טבת תשפ א
Is a rule designed to end discrimination against religious groups serving the general public automatically discriminatory against people who
don’t belong to those religious groups?
That is the question underlying the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump’s executive order issued on Monday to remove certain restrictions on religious organizations that receive federal money to provide social services.
The Obama-era restrictions require faith-based groups to tell clients about their religious affiliation and to refer them to a different program upon request. It also tells religious groups to give clients written notice about their rights, including that they can’t be forced to participate in religious activities, according to the Associated Press.
(NIH)
NIH Director Francis Collins is doing full-court press these days in preparation of the vaccine distribution in the United States. The Washington Post, NPR, and other legacy media outlets are slathering over this political appointee as the perfect oracle to convince people of faith that the vaccine is safe and should be taken.
“One of the few high-profile Obama appointees to continue serving in President Trump’s administration, Collins carries a certain kind of authority to address people of faith, many of whom are skeptical of scientific evidence for such things as evolution.”
Typical WaPo:
You anti-science rubes need help understanding this! Thoroughly discounting (or mocking) the number of doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel who are people of faith, but still have legitimate concerns about not only how this pandemic has been handled medically and socially, but about this coming vaccine.
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