Does the Christian Reformed Church Have a Position on Vaccines?

I’ve heard Christians say that COVID vaccines are “against their religion.” What do they mean? Does the Christian Reformed Church have a position?

Religions such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Christian Science Church oppose some or all medical treatment as part of their core teachings. But Christian teachings and virtually all denominations, including the CRC, see medical treatment as a blessing from God and a way to obey Jesus’ command to care for the sick (Our World Belongs to God, Art. 50).

Vaccines are public medical interventions that are proven to be effective. An estimated 4 million deaths worldwide are prevented by childhood vaccination every year. In making a decision about vaccination for yourself or your child, ask your doctor to explain the risks and benefits of vaccination and the risks of the disease. Vaccines are not entirely risk-free, but for most people the vaccine poses much lower risks than the disease.

Unfortunately, views on COVID-19 vaccines became highly polarized due to the contentious political environment and misinformation on social media. Some people had honest concerns about vaccines; others opposed them as a culture-war statement. Schools and hospitals with vaccination rules often allow a religious exemption, so some parents and health care workers claimed that exemption for the COVID vaccine even when their own religion didn’t teach against it.

Despite what you might have heard, vaccines do not contain cells of aborted human fetuses. Some vaccines are produced using laboratory stem cell lines (which started decades ago from a fetus that was aborted or miscarried), but no new fetuses are aborted to produce vaccines. The mRNA COVID vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer do not use stem cell lines even in production, making them an excellent choice.

COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the United States and the fourth-leading cause in Canada in 2022. Sadly, the percentage of people who die from COVID has been much higher for those who are not vaccinated. Today’s vaccines continue to reduce the risk of serious illness and death (you might still get today’s COVID variant, but you probably won’t get as sick). Vaccines also somewhat reduce the chance you’ll infect someone else, so many Christians embrace vaccines as a way to love their neighbors—especially those with weakened immune systems. Visit this article on thebanner.org to learn more.

Further reading:

• Our World Belongs to God (Contemporary Testimony), Article 50
• BioLogos has several Christian resources on vaccination, including the article Should Christians get vaccinated? , the video Should Christians trust the vaccine when the system is flawed? by Curtis Chang, Is the COVID Vaccine Safe for Children? by immunologist Michele Ols and pediatrician Paul McIntosh who explain why they chose to vaccinate their own kids, and How Do We Practice Gracious Dialogue When Talking about COVID-19 Vaccines? by Kendra Terpstra
• The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which strongly promotes religious liberty, concludes that pro-life Christians can accept vaccines developed using stem cell lines, even while urging the development of alternative methods. Similar conclusions are drawn by the evangelical Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, and ethical guidance from the Roman Catholic Church.
• We are not the first to face these questions, see Plague Advice from Martin Luther Christian History Institute, and Sue Thoms How 2 women scientists, helped by Grand Rapids, created whooping cough vaccine MLive.com January 25, 2015

Research and data:

• Religious Identities and the Race Against the Virus: American Attitudes on Vaccination Mandates and Religious Exemptions PRRI-IFYC Staff, 2021 Dec 9
• Fast Facts on Global Immunization Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Lives saved by COVID‐19 vaccines J Paediatr Child Health. 2022 Sep 20
• COVID-19 Vaccines, Prior Infection Reduce Transmission of Omicron, University of California San Francisco, 2023 Jan 2
• Swan, R. Faith-Based Medical Neglect: for Providers and Policymakers Journ Child Adol Trauma. 2020 Oct 9
• Johnson AG, Linde L, Ali AR, et al. COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality Among Unvaccinated and Vaccinated Persons Aged ≥12 Years by Receipt of Bivalent Booster Doses and Time Since Vaccination MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023 Feb 10
• Ikeokwu AE, Lawrence R, Osieme ED, Gidado KM, Guy C, Dolapo O. Unveiling the Impact of COVID-19 Vaccines: A Meta-Analysis of Survival Rates Among Patients in the United States Based on Vaccination Status.” Cureus. 2023 Aug 10
• United States: COVID-19 weekly death rate by vaccination status Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Jared Ortaliza, Krutika Amin, and Cynthia Cox. COVID-19 leading cause of death ranking Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. Nov 10, 2022.
• Leading causes of death, total population, by age group Statistics Canada

States With Religious and Philosophical Exemptions From School Immunization Requirements National Conference of State Legislatures