Imitating Contact Evangelistic Techniques, Part 2

So in the same spirit of the previous post about those ultra-aggressive paid solicitors from DialogueDirect, Sarah and I were walking in our local mall with our kids and a couple of friends from church when an older woman abruptly stopped Sarah.

"Your daughter is soooo beautiful!" the woman gushed. Not to sound at all boastful, but this has happened literally scores of times to Sarah while she's strolling Sophia, where she gets stopped by people in the street, in the supermarket, or in gym praising the cuteness of our daughter, sometimes accompanied with a flattering suggestion that we should get Sophia considered for commercial photo opportunities.

What was odd was how the woman continued after Sarah thanked her for the compliment.

"You know, there's always a reason why I come here. Today I had to return something in Macy's. Now I'm not a physician or anything but... do you work in the pharmaceutical industry? Because I want to tell you that I'm completely convinced that those vaccines are doing something bad to our children ..."

At this point, Sarah, maybe a little freaked out, started to stroll Sophia away with a smile while thanking the lady again. It dawned upon me that this whole "vaccinations are giving kids autism (or other developmental issues)" argument is more widespread that I thought.

There was a good article in Time magazine which reported on the rising tide of mothers and fathers who were suspicious of the effects of vaccines, even in the face of scientific evidence which overwhelmingly supporting the premise that vaccines, specifically MMR, were not the cause of autism.

But despite this scientific evidence, parents and grandparents (including, presumably, this woman who accosted Sarah and I at the mall) are not only playing Russian roulette with their children by eschewing vaccinations, they're also being bold and outspoken in converting others as well. And lest it be seen a simple issue of, "Fine, if you want to put your child at risk, you go right ahead," it's not that simple. The reality is that a growing number of non-vaccinated children presents a public health risk for the larger population, as reported in the New York Times.

As the article states, much of the problem stems from parents who get bad information from well-intentioned websites which oppose vaccination. Those parents tell other parents these ideas and present them as gospel, and before soon, you have a movement like the one that presently exists.

As for me, the issue becomes one of risk management. Insomuch I believe that there are some inherent risks embedded in having my children take vaccines, I feel that to not vaccinate them would expose them to far greater risk. Other parents are gambling with not only their children's health, but mine. As one mother who has refused vaccinations for the children freely admits, “I refuse to sacrifice (given her belief that vaccines are bad) my children for the greater good.”

And their movement goes on. I'm just waiting for people in the mall handing out the Jack Chick-ish tracts with titles like: "The Poison Pill!", "Vaccinated Vinnie and Autism", and "The Vaccine Conspiracy... Revealed!"