President of Samaritan’s Purse Rev. Franklin Graham had a lot of Evangelicals scratching their heads after he compared the coronavirus vaccine to the healing ministry of Jesus.
Rev. Graham told CNN’s Wolf Bilitzer that evangelicals should embrace “modern medicine” and not fear the vaccine.
Blitzer said, “I’m sure you saw that research survey that found that 45% of white evangelical Christians said they definitely or probably will not get vaccinated against COVID-19. So what’s your message to fellow evangelicals who are still hesitant to get this potentially life-saving vaccine?”
“You know when Jesus started his ministry, he went about preaching, and he used his power as the Son of God to bring healing to people’s bodies. And he didn’t do it so they’d have a better life,” Graham told Blitzer. “He did it so they’d put their faith and trust in him as the Son of God. And as a Christian, I think it’s important that we model our ministry after that of Jesus Christ. We want to try to bring healing to people’s bodies, and we can do that through modern medicine. My grandfather was a surgeon in China. He went there in 1916 and brought modern medicine at that time to China and used his skills as a surgeon to save lives, and he did it in Jesus’s name.”
“I think a lot of people are afraid to have something that’s just new. I thank God for vaccines. I thank God for the polio vaccine. I was 6 years old when they came to our school. They put it on a sugar cube. We all went down to the lunchroom, and they put a drop of vaccine, and we took it to our mouth, and we ate it and thought this was kind of fun. It’s like candy. I remember that vaccine. Now it’s been almost eradicated around the world. So vaccines are important. I would encourage people to pray about it, consider it. I would never tell somebody they had to have it or try to mandate it, but I think we certainly should encourage people to consider the vaccine. If you don’t take it, there are some real risks for some groups,” he concluded.
Graham mentioned receiving the polio vaccine when he was a child but that vaccine took a few years to develop and be declared safe.
