The Christian Post's top 10 news stories of 2021 (part 2)
1. Vaccine mandates
As the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on in 2021, vaccines against the virus became more readily available and mandates for the American public to get those vaccines became lightning rods for contention nationwide as the death toll from the virus soared above the total for 2020.
Vaccine availability
The federal government is now providing the COVID-19 vaccine free of charge to everyone age 5 and older living in the United States, regardless of their immigration or health insurance status, according to the CDC.
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Vaccine mandates
In an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 in 2021, President Joe Biden ordered new federal vaccine mandates for as many as 100 million Americans, including private-sector employees, healthcare workers and federal contractors as he pushed to get tens of millions of the unvaccinated to get the shots. Employers that did not comply by forcing their employees to get fully vaccinated faced hefty fines for each "violation," as The Christian Post reported here and here. Some cities and states also implemented vaccine mandates but not everyone was in agreement.
Vaccine mandate pushback
As a majority of Americans are already vaccinated, Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed an executive order instructing state agencies to resist the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates. At least 24 Republican state attorneys general threatened legal action against it. And in New York, 17 Christian medical professionals won a preliminary injunction against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in October, but it didn't last long. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block Hochul’s mandate even if a person has a religious objection.
Tug-o-war over virus in the church
To vaccinate or not vaccinate continued to be a big issue in the Church in 2021. In March, months after John Hagee, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, declared Jesus Christ as the vaccine for COVID-19 after he was hospitalized with the virus, his ministry was forced to clarify that he believes in prayer and medicine and is “taking the vaccine” after backlash over the comment.
In November, Daystar Television Network, one of the largest Christian television networks in the world and The American Family Association, a nonprofit Christian organization, argued in a lawsuit that a federal vaccine mandate forcing large companies to require their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccinated is a "sin against God’s Holy Word.”
By the end of the month, Marcus Lamb, Daystar Television Network’s founder was dead from COVID-19 complications at the age of 64.
Longtime Bible prophecy teacher and radio host Jimmy DeYoung Sr., who questioned whether COVID-19 vaccines are being used as a form of “government control” earlier this year, died in August after a weeklong battle with the coronavirus. He was 81.
Pastor Robert Jeffress, leader of the 12,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters, said in September that “there is no credible religious argument against” COVID-19 vaccines as an increasing number of Americans seek religious exemptions to vaccination mandates.
Pastor repents for not getting vaccine
In July, Pastor Danny Reeves of First Baptist Church in Corsicana, Texas, repented for not getting vaccinated sooner almost dying from it.
"I've been taught a lesson, and I'm big enough and humble enough to say I was wrong. And if my survival and my story can be a blessing to others, I pray it is," he said.
Leonardo Blair contributed to this report
