A new study from researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University finds that evangelicals who spoke with their pastors rather than health care professionals when it came to COVID were less likely to get vaccinated, adding yet another piece of evidence to what we already suspected: white evangelical leaders who treat vaccines like some kind of liberal conspiracy theory are leading their congregations off a cliff.

Ever since the vaccines for COVID-19 became available, we’ve known that evangelicals were far less likely to get the shot. From a distrust of science in general, to believing specific lies about the vaccines containing “aborted cell tissue,” to treating the modern miracles as if they were partisan in nature, white evangelicals have prolonged the pandemic and put the entire country at risk with their irresponsibility. They’re not alone in this, but they’re certainly not helping. We’re talking about churches, after all, that often railed against pandemic-related restrictions and mask mandates.

At the same time, white evangelicals who attend church regularly were less likely to hear encouragement to get vaccinated. (Pastors at historically Black churches, on the other hand, actively endorsed the shots.) ...