Pastor Who Said the True Vaccine Was “Jesus Christ” Now Admits He Got His Shots

Back in October, we learned that John Hagee, the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, tested positive for COVID.

His son Matthew said at the time that his father was “receiving extremely good medical treatment.” He’s lucky he could afford it. That’s not necessarily true of the congregation he was putting in danger by hosting in-person, indoor, mask-optional, not-very-socially-distanced services.

When Hagee returned to church in November, no changes were made reflecting the seriousness of the virus. The pastor didn’t tell anyone to take it seriously, either. Instead, he told them to just trust Jesus.

… I’m sitting in this chair today as a testimonial to the healing power of Jesus Christ. I spent 15 days in a hospital with double pneumonia, and I’m still supposed to be home gasping for air. I’m on this platform speaking of the glory of God, for the healing power of God.

…

… I bring under the authority of Jesus Christ every sickness and every disease and especially the COVID thing that’s sweeping this nation. We have a vaccine. The name is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Let Him sweep through this country and heal the righteous who dare to ask for it. Heal our church members. Restore them rapidly. Let the name of Jesus Christ be exalted, because He is Lord over all…

Just trust Jesus and you won’t need a vaccine, he implied.

Interesting thing about that: Since Jesus has lost countless battles to the virus so far, given the horrifically high death toll, Hagee is now urging everyone to get the vaccine. Turns out God isn’t good enough.

In a statement to ABC News, his staff “clarified” his comments:

Hagee Ministries later clarified Hagee’s comments, saying in a statement to ABC News that the pastor’s words were taken out of context.

“Pastor Hagee himself is taking the vaccine,” said Hagee Ministries spokesperson Ari Morgenstern. “Pastor Hagee believes in both the power of prayer and modern medicine. These are not mutually exclusive.”

His words weren’t taken out of context. And those things are mutually exclusive. You’ll be just fine with the vaccine and no prayer. You will not be fine with prayer and no vaccine.

Hagee spent the past year putting people in danger because he was too stupid and stubborn to care about the lives of his congregation. Only when faced with the prospect of public embarrassment in the face of the vaccines’ obvious success is he trying to retroactively claim he was on the side of science all along.

But we saw the lack of precautions his church took. We saw the lack of masks on their faces. We saw them all huddled together in a building.

You know what you won’t find?

A sermon from last year in which Hagee urges his congregation to take the vaccine because it’ll do more for them than Jesus ever could.