By Matthew Avery Sutton, WSU professor of history
Evangelicals make up one quarter of the United States population and they are the Americans least likely to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Even as the Biden administration works fervently to overcome vaccine hesitancy and some in the evangelical community like Franklin Graham, son of legendary preacher Billy Graham, pledge to help them, they face a daunting task. The hurdle: For many evangelicals, the vaccine, and proof that you have had it, are tools of the Antichrist.
This may all sound absurd. But millions of Americans believe it, making evangelical fears over the vaccine a public health problem. The origins of these ideas, however, have little to do with science but are instead grounded at the intersection of history, theology and politics. Understanding, explaining and challenging these beliefs could be key to saving lives.
In the future, historians probably will write about how evangelicals worrying about the vaccine as the mark of the Antichrist will look as silly as those who once feared credit cards or bar codes do to us today. Indeed, during the past 50 years, evangelicals have always learned to integrate the supposed mark into their lives without diabolical consequences: They use Visa cards and scan bar codes at self-checkout lines.