Tulsa Man Creates Campaign Encouraging Evangelical Christians To Get COVID-19 Vaccine

With only about 30 percent of Oklahomans vaccinated, a Tulsa native helped create a media campaign to encourage Christians who are hesitant to get vaccinated.

Research on vaccine hesitancy shows white, evangelical Christians as a group likely to refuse the shot, with about half of them saying they definitely or probably won’t take the vaccine.

A new campaign to change that attitude is lead by a native Tulsan, Kris Carter, who helped create a website “Christians and the Vaccine.” The site has information and short video clips explaining various aspects of the vaccine, tailored to a Christian audience.

“The whole idea is just to put content in the hands of other people, and help them make a good decision," said Carter.

He and Seminary Professor Curtis Chang started the project in December, and have been featured in news programs nationwide.

Chang, in one of the video clips, said he wanted to answer questions posed by Christians, adding “but I want to make the case that after considering those questions, all Christians should take the vaccine, and do so, for important, Biblical reasons.”

Carter said while many evangelical people are hesitant to take the vaccine, as much as 95% of pastors say they’ll take it.

“There's a pretty significant gap between the person in the pulpit and the people in the pews. We feel it's important to equip pastors. Pastors have the ability to provide wise counsel and we want to give them the tools to provide that wise counsel,” said Carter.

You can visit their website Christians and the Vaccine here.

You can read an op-ed they wrote in the New York Times here.