Religious Masking and the Rhetorical Strategies of Digital Anti-Vaccination Churches

Abstract

We analyze the rhetorical strategies of “digital anti-vaccination churches.” We argue that these groups adopt the appearance of a religious institution to gain access to vaccine exemptions, through a process we call “religious masking.” Religious masking involves the impersonation of religious style and substance to “pass” convincingly as a religious institution under legal requirements. Simultaneously, the performance of masking also signals to audiences that the church functions as an anti-vaccine exemption resource. Anti-vaccination churches effectively speak to multiple audiences by drawing upon rhetorical strategies of style, consubstantiality, and agency.

Keywords:

• Agency
• Consubstantiality
• Digital Rhetoric
• Style
• Vaccine Skepticism

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the editor, the paper’s anonymous reviewers, Nick Paliewicz, Rebecca Rice, Randy Lake, Paul La Plante, and attendees to the 2020 Western States Communication Association annual convention for the valuable feedback they provided on the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Data collection occurred during the Fall of 2019. At the time of submission, the Genesis II website (https://genesis2church.org/) shows the message: “Due to US Dept. of Justice permanent injunction against the Genesis II Church, this site is closed. Bishop Mark S. Grenon.” The site was shut down after nearly 20 deaths were attributed to its Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) products (DeSantis, 2019). MMS is a 28% sodium chlorite mixture combined with a citric acid designed to create a chemical reaction that results in chlorine dioxide, which is functionally bleach (Pilkington, 2019; Ryan, 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emma Frances Bloomfield

Emma Frances Bloomfield researches the rhetoric of science and environmental communication, especially related to climate change, human origins, and the body. Stephanie S. Willes (MA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas) is a visiting lecturer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She researches digital rhetoric, the affordances of the Internet, and the anti-vaccine movement.