In Canada. It had help, as the headline, says. We have always known one or two people on the edges of our Christian circles who did not vaccinate. Usually they are chiropractors, or closely connected to them. It's hard for me to bite my tongue. Dead children, and all that.
It is usually associated with the belief that natural things are better. That doesn't have any overlap with Christianity, but it does have some similar appeal. It seems old-fashioned, tested, safe - not like these new chemically things that have God-knows-what in them. No real basis in reality to the naturalness belief, but you can always keep the anecdotes that support your view and ignore the others. Secondly, that "naturalness" view likes the idea that God made this a simple world which man has complicated and messed with, so getting back to those simple things is a way of reversing the Fall, or at least, becoming more as God intended. Again, that's not what the Christian doctrine means, but it has the same narrative feel to it, so people who like a sort of traditional Christianity are drawn to it because it feels the same.
Of course, Buddhists and New Agey and faux Native American religion adherents could say the same. Natural. It feels right. It must be right. It's usually nice, gentle people too.
Still, there are those dead kids. Not a great tradeoff.
Sadly, we have measles in Sweden too, thanks to the Anthroposophists here. Their center south of Stockholm has been ground zero for several epidemics over the years. They reject vaccine on the basis that diseases are a natural part of child development.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, as far as my own experience goes, they are friendly and intelligent people. But I guess they are mentally rigid. Why else would they want to live in an isolate commune where everyone thinks alike?
I should have figured that anthroposophists would find some congenial souls in Sweden. For locals, anthroposophy is deeply connected to Waldorf schools, of which High Mowing in Wilton is a prominent example. Owen Barfield, a good friend of CS Lewis's, was an anthroposophist. I never saw the intellectual attraction myself.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to lead to another post on naturalness, I think, but from another angle: all the Gregory Bateson, RD Laing, Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson crew, and the damage all these nice people caused.