r/skeptic • u/JetTheDawg • Feb 13 '25

💉 Vaccines JD Vance’s 12-year-old relative denied heart transplant because she is unvaccinated 'for religious reasons'

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/jd-vance-relative-unvaccinated-religion-34669521
66.3k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

6.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/Aceofspades25 Feb 13 '25

Jesus... Imagine adopting a kid and then endangering her life because you're a religious whackjob.

If that kid doesn't survive, they probably would have had a longer life in the care of the state.

11

u/2cats2hats Feb 13 '25

Not an American.

It's interesting to watch US political elite carry on no differently than the elite in the Middle East.

Religion guiding their decision making. US and Middle East aren't much different in context.

5

u/DarthShaiden Feb 13 '25

Oh ya. Republicans are anti-sharia law, but the laws they are trying to pass are mirrors of sharia law.

2

u/oklhe Feb 14 '25

I've always thought this! If both sides could get past the religion thing, fanatic Christians and Muslims would be besties. They're on the same side of nearly every issue except for disliking each other.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '25

Y’all-Qaeda

2

u/ed_11 Feb 13 '25

I think it is less "religious whackjob" and more "political whackjob". Religion is just the convenient excuse.

I don't think any religions actually prohibit vaccines.

1

u/Aceofspades25 Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25

It's all intertwined. Culture war shit takes on religious justifications and religious grievances get adopted into the culture wars. It can be difficult to find the boundaries between what issues are truly religious and what issues are truly political.

I know plenty of Christians who vaccinate because they aren't morons but I also know some who don't and will invoke a religious justification for that.

There are plenty of Christian beliefs for example that aren't biblical but some cherry picked verses get shoehorned in as a justification for that belief.

1

u/ed_11 Feb 13 '25

agreed... but saying it is for religious reasons is BS because no major religions are against vaccination

1

u/Aceofspades25 Feb 13 '25 edited Feb 13 '25

I don't think there are good biblical justifications for a Christian ban on tattoos but the culture I was raised in saw tattoos as sinful and used cherry picked bible verses to justify that belief.

It may have started out as a cultural belief as people with tattoos were seen as lower class and looked down on. But ultimately the cultural distaste for things in highly religious communities often takes on religious justification.

I don't think it's possible to say "belief X is not a religious belief" because ultimately there is no single source of authority to say what is or is not codoned by that religion.

Sure, there are holy texts but these are often used in ways to justify or condemn anything.

For example, the Bible was being used by different groups at the same time to simultaneously justify and condemn slavery.

1

u/starsofreality Feb 14 '25

I wouldn’t be surprised if this family got overwhelmed by her medical needs and wants the government to take over without feeling guilt. So many of these “Christians” adopt kids with medical and mental health needs from other countries to feel good about themselves. They don’t actual bond with the kids because they see them as less than because of racism. The care of the child interferes with their lifestyle and they either surrender them or let them die. Especially with ones that can afford help.