Religion and the covid-19 vaccine
4 min read
By Margaret Kamba
There has been a fierce resistance by some church believers or goers and those in between to acquire the Covid-19 vaccination with them regarding it as the mark of the beast. The truth really is not known but whatever the arguments being peddled are, we have seen this whole resistance spilling into the courts.
The court ruling not to bar unvaccinated congregants from attending church services is evident of some kind of discord between the church and government. Even after consultations to have the congregants attending at a ratio of the capacity of the church, it is clear that government is not going back on protecting its citizens from this virus. It is clear that there is a deliberate emphasis to ensuring the citizens are protected from this virus that has ravaged the whole world. Achieving herd immunity is of paramount importance because the death of even one person to the virus is a huge loss to the country, health practitioners have afterall been sown to oath.
Many have been the stories about how dangerous and deadly this virus has been with tales of patients being drained 20 litres of water from the body in some worst case scenarios while others have not made it at all.
To the man or woman who has not suffered from covid-19, properly wearing a mask is nonsense and their description is “mask inondi affecter or ndinotsva ndikaipfeka.” They simply do not understand why it is important to wash their hands properly, why they must sanitize or why it is important to social distance.
Those that have suffered from the virus know the pain of breathing at this time or how hard it is to lose a loved one. They know failure to comply with the health guidelines can mean six feet under. They also know what it means to be discriminated because they have first-hand experience.
In one Melissa Chisi’s words “I do not feel comfortable with people that have not suffered from covid-19 or have not disclosed that they have suffered from it. I am freer with people that have suffered from covid-19 because they do not judge me when I properly wear my mask or social distance or sanitize.”
With so many innovations that have come about to ensure the social distancing occurs among them Zoom and other online meeting spots, some churches have been innovative enough to ensure they deliver sermons and services away from congregants.
But perhaps one must ask why it is important to meet face to face. Some would want to quote that it is written in the Bible that where two or more are gathered Christ is there hence the need to congregate. It would be difficult to ward off the notion that some pastors want congregants in the church for the sole purpose of offerings and tithes. What makes it worse is the seemingly flip flopping tendency on the part of the prophets or reverends with regarding their position on the vaccination. While one’s emotional state can affect the physical wellbeing of a person, it must be clear if getting vaccinated will affect a person’s ability to worship their Creator.
Pastor Tatenda Shoko had this to say on the issue.
“There is no way that one’s spirit can be affected by getting vaccinated. However you hear some believers refusing to go and get vaccinated as if it is their spirit that is getting vaccinated. What is getting vaccinated is just the flesh and therefore people must go and get vaccinated,” Pastor Shoko said.
“I have never seen a scripture talking about a person marked with the Mark of the Beast failing to go to heaven. However it is other things that the same Christians do that will not allow them to heaven which they are not worried about. They lie, cheat and steal just to mention a few which they need to concern themselves with instead of a jab which is said to protect them.”
For some African Traditional Religion ATR experts there is a belief that there should have been a message from the gods before the coming in of the virus and a message of how long it would last and what the people need to do for it to go away.
Whether or not the messages came, we have seen the use of herbs and many other remedies to ensure that those that drink them are saved from the adverse effects of the pandemic. Those that have used such medicines as the zumbani have reaped the immense benefits of the shrub.
A cultural expert Senzeni Matshobana noted that it was a given that the ancestors would communicate with the people before something would occur hence her belief that the coming of the pandemic must have been known ahead of time and measures taken.
“There is nothing that happens without the gods telling their chosen people. Messages therefore come through those chosen who see way before something occurs and share these messages. Some of these are believed to be going on because the gods have forsaken us and require us to return to them. It is believed that only when we return to them and ask can such diseases be washed away. In the same manner, the current virus must be a way in which the gods seek to have us return to them just as droughts, rains and famines have been in the past.”
It is strange how even now some people do not want to get vaccinated and have no reasonable explanation as to why they are not getting the jab. Perhaps it is only when death knocks on their doors that they will realize how crucial taking that jab really was.
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