What a difference a year makes.

Or not.

Fifty-two weeks ago, this news topped Weekend Plug-in.

Sound familiar?

Trump calls COVID-19 vaccine ‘a medical miracle,’ but many religious people are skeptical

Guess what? Many religious people remain highly skeptical of the vaccines, despite their strong effectiveness at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19.

Which leads us to this week’s news: a new public opinion poll on religious exemptions to the vaccines.

Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins reports:

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A new poll reveals most Americans are in favor of offering religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccines, yet express concern that too many people are seeking such exemptions. In the same survey, more than half of those who refuse to get vaccinated say getting the shot goes against their personal faith.

The poll, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core and released Thursday (Dec. 9), investigated ongoing debates about COVID-19 vaccines as well as emerging divisions over whether religious exemptions to the shots should even exist.

According to the survey, a small majority (51%) of Americans favor allowing individuals who would otherwise be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine to opt out if it violates their religious beliefs, compared with 47% who oppose such religious exemptions.

See additional coverage of the poll by the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner, a former contributor at GetReligion, and NPR’s Megan Myscofski.

In related news, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate for religious and private schools has frustrated some Jewish and Catholic leaders, and legal challenges are possible, report the New York Times’ Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Liam Stack and Jeffery C. Mays.

Meanwhile, RNS national reporter Bob Smietana talked about religion and vaccine skepticism on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” hosted by Brian Stelter. Check out the full interview from this past Sunday.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Some Texas religious leaders live in lavish, tax-free “parsonages” thanks to obscure law: “While average Texans struggle to pay property taxes, many ministers of the gospel are living in tax-free luxury thanks to a generous exemption in state law,” the Houston Chronicle’s Jay Root tweets.

In the first part of an investigative series, Root and two colleagues — Eric Dexheimer and Stephanie Lamm — delve deep into a state law that “allows religious organizations to claim tax-free clergy residences of up to 1 acre.”

2. Inside the Southern Baptist Convention's battle over race and what it says about the denomination: “Ahead of the 2021 SBC annual meeting, Black pastors were threatening to leave over how the denomination handled critical race theory,” this in-depth report by The Tennessean’s Liam Adams notes. “Internal documents offer a window into how leaders responded.”

How much time did Adams invest in this story? Enough to report fascinating details such as these:

From the 2016 annual meeting to the 2021 annual meeting, Southern Baptists have spent a total 273 minutes discussing and debating resolutions. Eighty-five of those minutes, or about a third of the total time, have been spent on resolutions about race, according to an analysis of video recordings.

3. John Paul I was pope for just 33 days. The story of his death is still evolving: “We went deep on one of the classic tales of intrigue in the Catholic Church — the death of John Paul I, who was pope for just 33 days,” explains Chico Harlan, the Washington Post’s Rome bureau chief.

“He died in 1978, but his tale is a modern one: After conspiracy theories take hold, can you ever set the record straight?” adds Harlan, who produced this story with Stefano Pitrelli, a Post reporter based in Rome.

CONTINUE READING: “Americans Favor Religious Exemptions For COVID-19 Vaccines — To A Point” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.