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Monday brings Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal US holiday for celebrating the life and achievements of the late civil rights leader, and an opportunity to recommit to better understanding and combating systemic racism and oppression.

After thekilling of George Floydby police in Minneapolis last year sparked protests around the world over racial injustice, manyshared resources to help others better understandlong-standing racial inequities and learn how to be better alliesto Black Americans. Dozens of books, novels, films and TV series addressing the discrimination that people of color face circulated online, some recommended by libraries like the Chicago Public Library and theOakland Public Library. One Twitter thread of antiracist children's books, shared by teacher Brittany Smith, wentviral. And a Google doc compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein also sharedrecommendations of what to watch and read. Netflix now showcases TV shows, movies and documentaries addressing racial injustice and the Black experience.

Get the latest tech stories with CNET Daily News every weekday.

Ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here are some recommendations pulled from those lists and crowdsourced from CNET staff. If you can't get to your local library or bookstore, here's some information on e-readers. If you're struggling with how to stream, read more about the best streaming devices andstreaming services.

Jump to the recommendations:

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander: This book challenges the idea that President Barack Obama's election welcomed a new age of colorblindness.

Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminismby bell hooks: This work explores issues such as the impact of sexism on black women during slavery and racism among feminists.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Framed as a letter to his son, Coates pursues the question of how to live free within a black body in a country built on the idea of race, a falsehood most damaging to the bodies of black women and men.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X: In this classic text, Muslim leader Malcolm X shares his life story and talks about the growth of the Black Muslim movement.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo: This book explores how white people uphold racial inequality when they react a certain way to their assumptions about race being challenged.

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde: Black lesbian poet and feminist writer Lorde shares a collection of essays and speeches exploring sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia and class.

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis: The activist and scholar shows the link between several movements fighting oppression and state violence.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: The author's debut memoir explores themes like loneliness, bigotry and love.

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon: This text explores the period following the Emancipation Proclamation in which convicts were brought back into involuntary servitude.

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi: The historian chronicles how racist ideas have shaped US history and provides tools to expose them.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson: This book tells the story of the migration of black Americans who left the South seeking better lives.

The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation by Daina Ramey Berry: This text explores how in early America, slaves were commodities in every phase of life.

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson: The historian addresses the forces opposing black progress in America throughout history.

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi: The founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center uses history, science, class, gender and his own journey to examine racism and what to do to fight it in all forms.

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.: The author explores the war on crime starting in the 1970s and why it had the support of several African American leaders in urban areas.

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper: In a world where black women's anger is portrayed as negative and threatening, Cooper shares that anger can be a source of strength to keep fighting.

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon: This memoir explores the impact that lies, secrets and deception have on a black body and family, as well as a nation.

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad: This book asks readers to address their own biases, and helps white people tackle their privilege so they can stop harming people of color, even unconsciously.

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit From Identity Politics by George Lipsitz: This text looks at white supremacy and explores how the concept of "whiteness" has been used to define, bludgeon and control the racialized "other."

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts: This book illustrates how America systemically abuses Black women's bodies.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Dr. Joy DeGruy: This book explores the impact that repeated traumas endured across generations have on African Americans today.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois: In this influential collection of essays, Du Bois, who played a critical role in shaping early 20th-century black protest strategy, argues that begging for rights that belong to all people is beneath a human's dignity, and accommodating to white supremacy would only maintain black oppression.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo: The author provides a blueprint for everyone on how to honestly and productively discuss race and shares ways to bring about change.

The Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead: This novel follows a young slave's desperate journey toward freedom.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: Two boys are sentenced to reform school in Florida during the Jim Crow era.

Passing by Nella Larsen: This novel explores the fluidity of racial identity through the story of a light-skinned woman who's married to a racist white man who doesn't know about her African American heritage.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: The book tells the story of two half-sisters born in different villages in 18th-century Ghana and their descendants, with one sister later living in comfort and the other sold into slavery.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: A young couple leaves Nigeria for the West, each following a different path: She confronts what it means to be black in the US, while he lives undocumented in Britain. They reunite 15 years later in Nigeria.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: The 1937 classic follows the journey of an independent black woman, Janie Mae Crawford, in her search for identity.

Roots: The Saga of an American Familyby Alex Haley: This novel is based on Haley's family history, and tells the story of Kunta Kinte, who is sold into slavery in the US.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith: This novel tells the story of an interracial family impacted by culture wars.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: A nameless narrator describes growing up in the south, going to and being expelled from a Negro college, moving to New York and, amid violence and confusion, ultimately going to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he sees as himself.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty: This satire follows a man who tries to reinstate slavery and segregate the local high school, leading to a Supreme Court case.

13th (Netflix): Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores racial inequality in the US, with a focus on prisons.

When They See Us (Netflix): Ava DuVernay's gut-wrenching -- and essential -- miniseries is based on the true story of the falsely accused young teens known as the Central Park Five.

Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement (BET): This documentary explores the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dear White People (Netflix): Based on a film of the same name, this series shows the biases and injustices that a group of students of color face at Winchester University, a predominantly white Ivy League college.

American Son (Netflix): An estranged couple meet at a police station in Florida to try to find their teenage son.

If Beale Street Could Talk (Hulu): Based on the James Baldwin novel, this Barry Jenkins film centers on the love between an African American couple whose lives are torn apart when the man is falsely accused of a crime.

Blindspotting (Hulu with Cinemax): Collin needs to make it through three more days of probation, and his relationship with his best friend is tested after he sees a cop shoot a suspect during a chase.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (available to rent): A young black man dreams of reclaiming his childhood home in a now-gentrified neighborhood in San Francisco.

Fruitvale Station (available to rent): Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, the biographical film tells the story of Oscar Grant III, who was killed by a white police officer in 2009.

Selma (available to rent): Directed by Ava Duvernay, the historical drama follows civil rights demonstrators in 1965 as they marched from Selma to Montgomery.

The Hate U Give (Hulu with Cinemax) -- Based on the young adult novel by Angie Thomas: The story follows Starr Carter's struggle to balance the poor, mostly black neighborhood she lives in and the wealthy, mostly white school she attends. Things become more complicated after she witnesses a police officer killing her childhood best friend.

16 Shots (Showtime): This documentary investigates the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in Chicago.

Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Paramount): This six-episode series follows the life and legacy of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was fatally shot in 2012 in Sanford, Florida.

America to Me (Starz): The documentary series provides a look into a year at Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School, one of the nation's top performing and diverse public schools.

Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas (HBO): Comic and writer Wyatt Cenac explores the police's excessive use of force in black communities and discusses solutions with experts in this late-night talk/comedy series. The show is currentlyfree to watch on YouTube.

Do the Right Thing (available to rent): Salvatore "Sal" Fragione, an Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn, and neighborhood local Buggin' Out butt heads after Buggin' Out becomes upset that the restaurant's Wall of Fame only shows Italian actors. Tensions flare up as the wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to others in the neighborhood.

BlacKkKlansman (HBO Max): Ron Stallworth, the first African-American detective to work in the Colorado Springs Police Department, sets out to infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan.

The Wire (HBO): This show explores Baltimore's narcotics scene from the perspectives of both law enforcement and drug dealers and users.

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr: This book shares the importance of acceptance, understanding and confidence.

Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz: Written by Malcolm X's daughter, this book tells the story of the boy who became one of the most influential leaders.

Let's Talk About Race by Julius Lester: Lester tells his story and discusses what makes us all special.

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander: The award-winning picture book, based on a poem by Alexander and with illustrations by Kadir Nelson, chronicles the struggles and triumphs of black Americans.

Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney: This book tells the stories of courageous black women who fought against oppression, including Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.

The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles: This tells the story of the first African American child to integrate a school in New Orleans.

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins and Ann Hazzard: The story follows a white family and a black family discussing a police shooting of a black man in their town, and aims to answer children's questions about these kinds of events and to inspire them to challenge racial injustice.

My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera: When a girl named Mackenzie is taunted by classmates about her hair, a neighbor shows her the true beauty of natural black hair.

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh: Nearly 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, an American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage was denied entry into a "whites only" school, which led her parents to organize the Hispanic community and file a lawsuit. This ultimately ended segregated education in California.

Blended by Sharon Draper: This story about 11-year-old Isabella's blended family explores themes like divorce and racial identity.

Young Water Protectors: A Story About Standing Rock by Aslan Tudor, Kelly Tudor and Jason EagleSpeaker: A few months after 8-year-old Aslan came to North Dakota to try and stop a pipeline, he returned to find the world was now watching.

My Family Divided: One Girl's Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope by Diane Guerrero and Erica Moroz: Actress Diane Guerrero tells the story of her undocumented immigrant parents being taken from their home, detained and deported when she was a child in Boston.

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson: Two girls form a friendship atop a fence that separates the segregated African American side of town from the white side. The book is illustrated by E.B. Lewis.

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell: A citizen of the Cherokee Nation tells the story of modern Native American life.

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford: This book tells the story of Arturo Schomburg, who loved to collect books, letters, music and art from Africa and the African diaspora and to shed light on the achievements of people of African descent. His collection ultimately made it to the New York Public Library, and is now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Lailah's Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi: When Lailah is enrolled in a new school in a new country, she's worried her classmates won't understand why she isn't joining them in the lunchroom during Ramadan.

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson: The book, with art by Rafael Lpez, is about how to be brave and find connection with others, even when you feel alone and scared.

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis: This classic tells the story of a boy's journey to find his father.

IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council and Carolyn Choi: Nine characters share their stories and backgrounds in this book celebrating allyship and community.

Black Lives Matter. Visitblacklivesmatter.carrd.coto learn how to donate, sign petitions and protest safely.

CNET's Anne Dujmovic contributed to this report.

Read more from the original source:
Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Movies, TV shows and books on systemic racism - CNET

Seven hundred years after his death, updating Dantes Divine Comedy continues to be an enjoyable pastime. What, for example, would Minos, the mythological judge in Inferno, make of Boris Johnson? Snake-tailed and scowling, Minos sits at the mouth of hell, assessing sinners before sending them to their appropriate location in the nine circles of torment. Popes, emperors and Dantes personal enemies are all blown downwards to their just deserts by a bitterly cold wind.

For Mr Johnson, the upper circles, where sins of passion and unrestrained appetite are punished, might seem a natural home. Alternatively, remembering the notorious 350m for the NHS Brexit pledge, the eighth circle where falsifiers and promoters of schism languish could be a good fit.

The artistic aspirations of the Divine Comedy were, of course, more profound than a mere settling of scores with people Dante didnt like. His great work, completed in 1320, helped structure the theological imagination of the Catholic world. But as this years anniversary celebrations begin, it is the poets reflections on politics that strike a particular chord. He was as preoccupied with the consequences of factionalism and tribalism as we are.

The explanation for that lies in Dantes own turbulent biography. Prominent in the ferocious power struggles of medieval Florence, he at various points took up arms, held high office, was double-crossed by Pope Boniface VIII and subsequently died in exile. Writing the Divine Comedy, the author deals ruthlessly with those who engineered and profited from the poets banishment. Bonifaces card is marked in Canto XIX of Inferno. Filippo Argenti, a political rival, is placed in the fifth circle of hell, reserved for the wrathful, where he bites lumps out of himself for all eternity.

But as Dante is guided by Virgil towards heaven, he learns how politics should be done differently on earth. The Roman poet embodies the four cardinal virtues of the ancient world: prudence, courage, justice and moderation. In Paradiso, Saint Thomas Aquinas emphasises the need for moral and intellectual humility. Fallible human beings, he tells Dante, should never become too sure of themselves. In Canto XVIII, we learn that the souls of just rulers dwell in the temperate sphere of Jupiter, well away from the extremes of fiery Mars and cold Saturn. Saint Thomas acidly sums up heavens view of opinionated blowhards at the end of Canto XIII: Let not every Bertha and Martin think/ Because they see one a thief, another respectable,/ That they see how they are in the eyes of God;/ For one may rise, and the other one may fall.

In our own age of divisive culture wars, this celestial wisdom, dutifully written down and delivered to the world by Dante, could be very usefully deployed. In recent years, hectoring Berthas and Martins have dominated far too much of the political stage. If we could channel some of the pacific spirit of Dantes Paradiso into our everyday lives, it would be a fitting anniversary tribute to Europes greatest poet.

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The Guardian view on Dante: heavenly wisdom for our troubled times - The Guardian

On Thursday afternoon the governments preferred candidate for the chair of the BBC, Richard Sharp, will appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee as part of the process that leads to his formal appointment to a four-year term at the apex of the BBC hierarchy.

When news of Sharps appointment broke last week, left-leaning commentators were quick to call it another example of Tory cronyism: Sharp has given more than 400,000 to the party or its MPs since 2001. He is also reported to have mentored the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, at Goldman Sachs and to have acted as an economic adviser to Boris Johnson when he was London mayor.

Conservative commentators replied, reasonably enough, that Labours record was no better. Twenty years ago, Blair appointed the Labour donor (and Goldman Sachs partner) Gavyn Davies as BBC chair. Davies, who was later forced to resign after the Hutton inquiry, was also very close to the then chancellor, Gordon Brown, whose office was headed by Daviess wife, Sue Nye.

This unedifying debate distracts from the real issue with all these appointments that the chair of an organisation with a self-described mission to hold power to account is appointed by the government. As one BBC insider remarked on Sharps appointment: Whatever you think of bankers, he is very client-friendly, and our biggest client is the government. At best, it is a system that threatens the BBCs independence; at worst, its very public purpose.

The first chair to have ambitions and a mandate to change the culture of the BBC was the Conservative peer Charles Hill. His appointment in 1967 signalled the beginning of the end for the much celebrated golden age of growth and innovation at the BBC under director general Hugh Greene. As chair, Hill marginalised Greene, strengthened governmental oversight and commissioned a series of reports from McKinsey, leading to unpopular organisational reform and a severe loss of morale.

If appointments to the role of BBC chair have usually been less controversial, it is not because the mechanism itself has become more political, but that there has usually been a higher degree of elite consensus. Lord Hill was not appointed by his own party, but by the Labour prime minister Harold Wilson. Davies was certainly close to the Labour party, but he had served as an adviser to the Conservative treasury and as an investment banker, he was hardly a figure of the left. When establishment consensus and constitutional niceties are broken, it tends to be by the right. It was the Thatcher era that saw the most overly politicised appointments to the BBC, with the chair Marmaduke Hussey eventually orchestrating the removal of the director general Alasdair Milne.

To some extent, therefore, Sharps appointment as chair follows the general pattern: an establishment figure with close ties to the government of the day. Just like the incumbent chair, David Clementi, Sharp studied PPE at Oxford, worked in investment banking and has held a position at the Bank of England.

Given the context of his appointment, however, and what we know about his political affiliations, there are very good reasons to be concerned.

First, Sharp will serve alongside a director general, Tim Davie, who was a Conservative party member and business executive, creating a rightwing, market-oriented duo at the top of the BBC. Second, like Clementi, he arguably has more power than previous BBC chairs, who headed boards kept at one remove from the management.

Finally, Sharp is not merely a Conservative, and not even merely a Conservative donor. Since 2002 he has been a director of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), the Westminster thinktank founded by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph to win over the Conservative party to what would later be called neoliberalism. Given the size of his donations to the Tories, Sharp is also likely to be a major donor to CPS (the CPS refuses to identify its funders).

Sharps family foundation donates to the Institute for Policy Research, an obscure charitable organisation that funnels money to the CPS as well as to other organisations aligned with the right of the Conservative party, among them the Taxpayers Alliance, MigrationWatch UK and News-watch, an organisation that has produced a number of reports alleging anti-EU bias in BBC reporting. His foundation has also funded the controversial counter-extremism organisation Quilliam, which lobbies in support of strict counter-terrorism policies.

Sharps prominence in the British conservative movement is a worry for the political independence of the BBC but what is more worrying still is that he arrives at a time when the future of public media is in jeopardy. BBC supporters breathed a sigh of relief at the departure of Dominic Cummings from No 10, but Sharp is drawn from the same political milieu; if his CPS affiliation is anything to go by, he will be no friend of public service broadcasting. Allegations of liberal-left bias and endless culture wars make the headlines, but what has really driven government media policy is the commercialisation of programme-making and the erosion of the BBCs public service ethos.

Central to the rightwing critique of the BBC is the assumption that culture is not a common resource to be publicly supported, but a matter of personal preference something to be consumed or, for the wealthy, patronised. What truly offends the neoliberal sensibility about the BBC is that citizens are compelled to support an organisation that offers no mechanism for market-based consumer preference. The BBC has never really mounted an effective response to this critique.

Generally, it has instead pointed to the quality of its output and, quite correctly, to the greater efficiency and value for money that public provision offers. The latter point might seem counterintuitive given that we normally associate efficiency with the private sector. But profitable private media requires considerable investment in marketing and customer management, which have significant costs.

The challenge for public provision is that it requires political support. The right has always been more attentive to the politics of the media than the left, and there is now a concerted effort under way to reshape the media environment in the UK, as is evidenced by GB News, Times Radio, and a new broadcaster in the offing from News UK.

The rights strategy is not to take the BBC head on, but to usher in a new media regime dominated by corporate players. The debates and negotiations around the future of the BBC between now and 2027 will determine what shape this emergent media system takes. The present direction of travel promises highly politicised broadcasters and a global oligopoly of rival digital content platforms perhaps with some requirements for public interest content at the margins. Such a system of journalism and cultural production will be no more responsive to audiences than the BBC, and crucially will not offer the universal provision that should be core to its mission.

A BBC headed by Davie and Sharp is highly unlikely to publicly champion universality in news, education and culture, still less a vision of accountability outside market mechanisms or the state, which is exactly what a modern public platform might offer us. If we want a BBC that can deliver on the great promise of public media in the digital age, these arguments and this vision will have to come from elsewhere.

Tom Mills is lecturer in sociology at Aston University. He is the author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service

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Richard Sharp's arrival at the BBC will entrench conservative influence - The Guardian

The culture wars do not resonate with most Britons, according to a report, which says that despite Brexit the country is actually united on many fronts especially climate change

Brexit, immigration and successive coronavirus lockdowns have left the British public divided and entrenched in partisan views or so the narrative goes. But a landmark study into peoples beliefs suggests that, while a small minority of political extremists have stoked the so-called culture wars, the rest of us have formed broad consensuses around supposedly divisive issues.

Conducted by More in Common, a thinktank founded after the murder of MP Jo Cox, the study used focus groups, academic interviews and a poll of 10,000 voters to gauge the mood of the British public following a tumultuous five years.

The results published in October in a report titled Britains Choice: Common Ground and Division in 2020s Britain concluded that the them v us narrative playing out in newspapers and on social media is largely inaccurate and that the fault lines in society are not as deep as we might believe.

Our conclusion is that Britain is not divided into two opposing camps of remain versus leave, left versus right, north versus south, or rich versus poor, read the report. Instead, we find seven distinct groups, who are distinguished not by who they are, where they are from, or what they look like, but what they believe.

The seven tribes progressive activists, civic pragmatists, disengaged battlers, established liberals, loyal nationalists, disengaged traditionalists and backbone conservatives certainly have differing opinions on subjects such as Brexit. However, they overlap on many issues that some commentators have attempted to weaponise, including climate change, which 85 per cent of participants believed should concern everyone regardless of politics.

There is a lot of consensus on the climate agenda. I have not seen this anywhere else, said Mriam Juan-Torres, the reports lead author, who carried out similar studies in the US, Germany and France. Its astonishing the desire for action.

Despite divisions over Brexit, Britain reportedly remains united on many fronts. Image: Jannes van den Wouwer

Racial and gender equality are other issues on which there is consensus, with 79 per cent of participants claiming they felt proud of Britains progress on gender equality, and 77 per cent agreeing that racism is a problem. However, differing views were offered when it came to how racial injustice should be tackled.

Juan-Torres warned that such divisions have the potential to widen, but hoped the study would help lay the foundations for an agenda built on empathy and understanding, not division and polarisation.

Compared to the picture we get from our screens every day it gives us much reason for hope

There was also agreement on the subject of Britain being too London-centric, including from Londoners. And across the board there was a perhaps surprisingly loose affinity to political parties, with just 13 per cent of people saying they felt proud of their partisan identity.

The picture of our country that comes from this study is sometimes surprising, concluded the report. Compared to the picture we get from our screens every day it gives us much reason for hope.

Illustration: Cristina Estanislao/UN

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British society is more united than we are led to believe, finds study - Positive.News

The Pope is being vaccinated as early as this week. Yet some ultra-conservative groups on the fringes of the Churches prey on the fears of vulnerable people to claim the vaccination programme is part of a conspiracy to rob them of their freedom

Some 1.5 million people in the UK have now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, and the NHS working hand-in-hand with the Army is creating new local vaccination centres, hospital hubs and even mass vaccination sites at sports stadiums in a massive national effort to control the spread of the vaccine.

The vast majority of Christians like the vast majority of citizens of other faiths and none will take their place in the queue for a jab. Receiving the vaccine will be a tangible expression of the common good; recognising that our own health and that of others are closely interwoven. Just as we flourish through seeking the flourishing of others, we cooperate with public health measures in an act of solidarity. Unless there is an overriding medical reason for not being vaccinated, its very simple. To show our love for our neighbour means to have the jab.

Some are hesitant about being vaccinated because of concerns over the rapid development and testing of the vaccine; fears that often arise from misunderstanding and misinformation. Some Christians hesitate because some vaccines are grown in cell strains derived decades ago from an aborted foetus; in a Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines approved by Pope Francis, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made it clear that it is morally permissible to receive the currently available vaccines. The Pope said this week he planned to be vaccinated and urged others to have a jab. It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your own health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others. But there are more troubling reasons why some Christians are vaccine-hesitant or even anti-vaccination. Vaccination is becoming a new front in the culture wars.

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The Christians who fear vaccination - The Tablet