Measles outbreak infects 21 at unvaccinated church community in Texas

We had heard arguments on both sides of the vaccination debate. We considered that our children might get sick because of the vaccines and they might also get sick because they had not been vaccinated. Both choices involved a risk. We finally decided to vaccinate after we thought about what would hurt our testimony more: 1) if our children ended up sick because we followed the doctor’s recommendation and vaccinated them 2) if we ignored the doctor’s recommendation and not only did they get sick, but they also spread a dreaded disease to others.

After we saw the risk of them spreading diseases to others, we decided we should vaccinate. There is actually a common disease that causes risks to babies while the mothers are pregnant. The disease is not that serious to an older child, but it can cause birth defects if a pregnant mother gets it. (I think it is Rubella). Anyway, for some reason, the vaccines do not work for my wife (she is unable to develop the antibodies) so if she were exposed to that disease from an unvaccinated child while she were expecting, the baby would be at risk. Once we realized that the decision to avoid vaccines affected more than just our own family, we decided to have our children vaccinated. For us it is a matter of loving our neighbor as ourselves. I understand that everyone does not look at it this way, but this is why we decided to vaccinate.

I remember reading “Blinded by Might” years ago, and the authors mention that evangelicals are not concerned about justice, but “just us.” We have a track record of not being team players. We homeschooled our children, so that could be interpreted as anti-community. We were social and participated in many ways, but I knew some homeschoolers who had land out in the country, stashed guns and food, were suspicious by habit, and participated in no outside secular groups (like Scouts, Civil Air Patrol, community gatherings, etc.).

The balance between protecting one’s family and participating in society is unclear; but there are extremes. I do not believe that vaccination issues determine whether one is a team player and part of the community or not, however.

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