Kenneth Copeland - Kenneth Copeland Ministries

One of the biggest churches in Texas, Eagle Mountain International Church preaches to its parishioners that vaccinations can lead to autism. However, things changed since an outbreak of measles was linked to the congregation and its leaders have now advised people to get immunized or stay quarantined.

Church members where in for a surprise on Sunday, when instead of their normal sermon, Pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons was asked to speak about how everyone should respond to the fact that all of the recent 11 cases of measles in the Tarrant County have been traced to the members and visitors of the Church. Pearsons began her sermon by saying –Jesus was more than enough for every need that the congregation had. For all things known and unknown, Jesus was always there all these years. She also talked about the things that were affecting their church (the measles case) and mentioned that if the congregations keep their faith in Jesus, he will take them through.

The recent confirmation about the measles case from the Tarrant County Public Health Department is a really big deal in America as the country has been effectively measles free for more than 10 years now.

Pearsons said in her sermon that the church has organized a free vaccination camp for measles and urged members of the congregation who didn’t attend the vaccination to stay quarantined for at least two weeks. However, Pearsons’ announcement about the vaccination seemed awkward as her own father, Televangelist Kenneth Copeland was the one who endorsed the idea that vaccines could lead to autism.

The spokesperson for the Public Health Department at Tarrant County, Al Roy mentioned to the WFAA that at least 10 people from these measles cases were not able to attest documents that they were vaccinated.

With an attempt to put a biblical twist on the change in the church’s stance on the vaccination, Pearsons mentioned on Sunday that a lot of people think that the bible preaches about walking in faith and doesn’t pay importance to other things. She said that is a strange opinion about the bible and if you read the Old Testament, it talked about precautionary measures and following the law as well.

She also said that those Jewish people who didn’t die during the plague were saved because the bible showed them how to disinfect and stay clean and informed the Jews about the plague being contagious. She continued by saying that the plague wasn’t treated by medical doctors; rather she implied it was handled by the church ministers and priests. As per her belief it was those who believe in the commandments and the promises of God who can help disinfect people and avoid plague like conditions as opposed to medical doctors or vaccinations.