We can perhaps just barely find it in us to tolerate Rev. Adriaan Geuze’s notion that his (boneheaded, literal-minded, selective) interpretation of Matthew 9:12 (the bit that says “those who are well have no need of a physician”) authorizes him to advise his flock not to vaccinate their children. “We leave it in God’s hands,” he told a Vancouver newspaper. “If we get sick, he can also heal us from it.”
After all, as the saying goes, everyone is entitled to his own stupid opinion.
It is problematic enough that the “we” he blithely puts at risk are the children of his own congregation. But when the contagion spreads to the general population, “we” becomes all of us. It is for this reason, presumably, that other Canadian provinces have made it illegal to refuse vaccination for diseases like measles and mumps.
British Columbia has yet to follow suit. This is not right. There ought to be a law.
Graham Dowden