I’ve asked a couple people in real life (the thing outside the internet) what they think, but I know my age/socio-economic/political stances have brought me to friends who think similarly to me, and therefore would not be able to give me a non-biased opinion.

Background:

My best best friend in the whole wide world does not vaccinate her kids. She was first turned onto this by the “Mommy Group” at her church.

Her church/religious background: my friend was raised in a cult and unfortunately bears the scars of someone introduced to ultra-extreme conservativism at a young age. Even though she fled the cult, she gravitated to a man who made her join his religion to be with him (publicly, I might add as they’d been sleeping together for a while). She gave up dreams to be a doctor for this guy and dropped out of college and used her college savings on a wedding.

Although I was sad about this, and even a down right bitch at times, I’ve learned that friendship is about staying supportive through the hurdles. We’ve had gaps in our friendship before from fights that devastated us and it would be too difficult to do this again.

The Issue:

The church has “Elders” who manage the church. Enter 7 nondescript aging white guys. The “Elders” (not kidding, that’s their name), have women and male groups split up and it’s clear that while the men talk business and the future of the church, the women have been overcome by anti-vaccine propaganda. It’s very clear that the “Elders” are not involved nor concerned about the stuff in the women’s group, and I really don’t think they know the levels of insanity this group is at right now. 

I’m so so tempted to write to the pastor, as my friend (who is very young and impressionable) really doesn’t do anything her pastor won’t tell her to do. She would be personally offended if I said anything to her about her kids. As much as I’m disappointed in my friend, I’m mostly pissed off at the mommy group for brainwashing the young moms. My friend went through post pardum depression and I feel like they knew how to exactly sink their claws into her when she was so vulnerable. 

Her kids are truly wonderful and I get upset every time I see a kid with measles because it’s so preventable. A ton of moms now don’t vaccinate and they work together on getting paperwork finalized for religious exemption or they pull their kids from school to home school them. 

I worry for her and her beautiful family, but I really want to give a fucking wake up call to the pastor who does not have any idea this is being taught in his church.

I feel like I’m obsessing or being controlling, and I can handle the honest truth as this has been on my mind for some time. I unfortunately grew up ultra religious and I know the pain that comes from that may make me more upset than the average person. 

TL;DR: friend’s church has a mommy group that is teaching anti-vaccine propaganda to young, new moms without the churches knowledge. I would like to write an anonymous letter to their pastor to tell him about the uprising of anti-vaxx propaganda from their women’s group.

Hoping for clarity 