For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. - James 1:23-24 (ESV)
I received an email today from someone asking me to sign a letter for them requesting a religious exemption from a vaccine mandate he is facing. I replied that he must have the wrong person and he sent back the video link above to a clip from Anthony Wade Ministries! Needless to say, it is not me and my wife assures me I am more handsome but that aside, I soon found out that he is a minister from Ohio. This video in question is essentially his offering to Christians a letter they can co-opt from him to use to try and get out of whatever vaccine mandate they might be facing because Jesus would be all about personal carnal freedom at the cost of human life, right? Without getting into the surround fluff, I would like to comment on some of the biblical malpractice committed by this imposter to try and get people sick. I have waited for this moment for over a decade. It is time to debunk Anthony Wade. Ok, settle down, stop clapping.
Wade opens with this nugget - "Strongly held conviction based on one's faith is more than just an ideological persuasion." This is the theme that Pastor Wade keeps reiterating and forms the crux of the false foundation of his argument. Strongly held conviction must be based on God's word, not our faith. Why? Because we can be sincere and yet sincerely wrong. For example, word faith adherents believe that we can speak things into existence. Their faith is based upon this false belief. If they feel convicted somehow because of this false faith, who cares? This is why doctrine is always paramount. Wade's central argument here is that because "Leo" is sincere in what he believes, he should be exempted but that us not how it works. Now, if there was a verse that said, thou shall not put a vaccine in your body, THAT would be biblical proof. I hate to be Debbie Downer here but even then, a carnal system has every right to determine their own rules, regardless of our own personal convictions.
Next up Wade goes to 1Corinthians 6 to declare that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which it is. He adds in then that Romans 12 says we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is to be holy and pleasing to God. After some misdirection, he surmises that as Christians we cannot put something into our bodies that we are "uncomfortable with" and uses these scriptures to justify that. The problems here and many and varied. First of all, does it not matter WHY we might be uncomfortable with putting something into our bodies? Does not the truth mater? This is once again, Wade's thought process of personal sincerity and conviction as all that is needed to justify horrible errors in judgment. Secondly, we must ask about the inherent hypocrisy. Now, Wade goes to great length later to brag that Leo refuses to put alcohol or nicotine in his body as a display if some form of consistency. What about Twinkies? What about trans-fat? What about soda? Please. Do not hand me this sanctimonious blather when we all know that all of us put things in our bodies that we probably should not. Especially do not use such a specious argument to try and exempt people from something that could save their lives. Our "comfort" has nothing to do with this. That is certainly not a biblical argument.
In a moment of rabid stupidity, Wade compares Leo taking a life saving vaccine to asking a Muslim man to eat pork! You just cannot make this stuff up. In order for this comparison to work, there has to be clear admonishment in the bible against vaccines specifically, which of course there is not. Pastor Anthony then turns pure NAR by declaring to threaten Leo's ability to provide for his family threatens every liberty we hold dear in this nation. Wait, I thought this was a letter seeking a religious exemption? Why all of the stars and stripes? Because this is just another NAR dominionist pipe dream based on fear and disinformation. How can we be sure this is not a Christian argument? Because next Wade goes into how Leo has taken other vaccines because he has had the opportunity to evaluate their effectiveness over a period of years and decades. Wait, I thought this was a religious exemption? Sure sounds like worldly, carnal arguments. You cannot on one hand claim that your deeply held faith and religious beliefs are why you should not be mandated to take the vaccine and then make arguments about freedom and being able to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine. You expose yourself as being disingenuous at best.
Anthony Wade then claims Leo knows multiple people who have had adverse reactions to the vaccine including one woman who allegedly cannot conceive now because of it. These are arguments that ring hollow. Whenever you are forced to rely on personal experiences, third hand, that are unverified, you know you have reached the bottom of your rationale barrel and have begun scraping. He references Colossians 3:15 regarding the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts but pretends this means that we must have a sense of peace about decisions we make, such as a vaccine. Nonsense. Allowing the peace of Christ to reign in our hearts means to not be troubled as the world is troubled. To know we serve the Master of the Universe. This inner peace thing is straight out of the apostate church teachings where people are told that as long as they have peace about their decisions in life that is somehow God confirming for them. What rubbish! That is your own deceitful heart confirming for you! If God confirms He will do so through His word and not your feelings! Wade literally says that is we do not have this inner peace garbage then we are to avoid that thing? What? Read when God told Moses to take charge. Does that sound like a man with inner peace? Even Jesus Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane did not experience peace within His mortal frame. Yet He relied upon God's will being done regardless. The fact that Leo does not have a peace about the vaccine is because of people like Pastor Wade coddling his uncertainty and contributing to it instead of leading him with moral courage to protect himself and his family. The vaccine is not and should not be a political decision. Pastors should not be helping people harm themselves. The summary from Wade reveals that Leo is simply uncomfortable taking the vaccine because he fears it has not been proven effective and might have side effects. Perfectly sane, reasonable concerns but entirely carnal in nature and having nothing to do with his faith and beliefs. It is clear that Pastor Anthony Wade is using Leo to push his own political agenda and in a most despicable fashion offering to do the same for anyone who is willing to risk their lives and the lives of their families.
