If you were looking for the weakest and most ridiculous metaphor for the Holy Spirit that has ever been made, and believe me there are some awful ones out there, may I present to you Dr. Wayne Koch and his argument that the Holy Spirit is comparable to the Covid-19 vaccine.

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So, according to the good doctor, a professor at Johns Hopkins by the way, there is an equivalence between the Covid vaccine and the Holy Spirit of God indwelling you. This is patently crazy, of course. But let's examine why he ventures to make this comparison.

First, Dr. Koch states that the vaccine is the reason that his church is able to come together and meet in the house of the Lord. I hate to break it to the doc, but churches have been meeting together for the past year, all over the country and world, before there was even a hint of a vaccine coming out. Churches have been meeting in a completely normal manner for literally over a year, some never even stopped meeting.

But, at his church, a PCA Presbyterian Church, apparently it wasn't possible to meet without the vaccine. It was the medical miracle that allowed the church to function again.

If this isn't making an idol out of science I don't know what is.

"As you look to your right and to your left and you see the person sitting next to you, we hope that that person is vaccinated, but we also hope that they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, as we have hope that the Holy Spirit dwells in us."

Oh yes, of course, when I go to church and look at my fellow congregants I am definitely worried about them having the Covid shot at the same level I am about their eternal salvation. These are equivalent things.

To be fair, Dr. Koch does say the Holy Spirit is "much better" but the comparison itself is just embarrassing.

The whole point of this, according to Dr. Koch, at Columbia Presbyterian Church it is the vaccine that gives them the confidence to gather together as believers. The same as the confidence we have before the throne of God on the day of judgment because of the Holy Spirit.

The other obvious implication is that in making this comparison, Dr. Koch is saying that unvaccinated people have no place in his church. If the vaccine is what allows you to gather together, then what about the vaccine-hesitant? What about those that have already gotten Covid and therefore decide they don't need the vaccine? Or people who have health issues preventing them from taking the vaccine?

I'm sure Dr. Koch would admit that the metaphor isn't perfect, which is why it probably wasn't a good idea to make it in the first place. It's just another unfortunate shaming tactic to get people to join in the vaccine train.