Seminary president and theologian Albert Mohler said he will take the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to him and that he will do so not only for his health but also for the health of others. The president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., made the comments in a column on his website. Mohler was referencing the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine.
“Reasonable Christians and Christian parents will differ over whether or not to take the vaccine,” Mohler wrote. “But, speaking personally, I will take this vaccine as soon as it is available to me. I will take it not only for what I hope will be the good of my own health, but for others as well. I will seek to encourage others to take the vaccine. Those who view vaccines as solely an individual choice should consider their decision’s impact on others.”
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, he wrote, can be embraced by pro-lifers. “If the abortion of even a single human baby was required for this vaccine, or if abortion-derived materials were included in the vaccine, Christians would be rightly outraged,” he wrote. “This is not the case. The vaccine can be taken by pro-life Christians with legitimacy.”
“This is an unprecedented event in medical history,” he wrote. “… It generally takes years for the development of a successful vaccine, if indeed a vaccine is ever developed. Medical science and development, however, has shattered those typical expectations. … The creation of vaccines in such a short amount of time is something to be celebrated.”