Based in Newark, Texas, a rural community 25 miles north of Fort Worth, Eagle Mountain is co-pastored by Copeland’s daughter, Terri Copeland Pearsons, and son-in-law, George Pearsons. The church is also part of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a vast and profitable multimedia ministry led by its namesake, a longtime prosperity preacher and television evangelist. “I didn’t know a single mother who was vaccinating her children.”Īs a Word of Faith church, Eagle Mountain is part of the booming prosperity gospel movement, which holds that God wants to reward believers with riches, health and happiness, if they will just recite certain Scriptures, pray and trust in divine providence. Members of Eagle Mountain International Church also believed that childhood vaccinations could lead to autism, Arden said. “If you were afraid of the illness enough to get vaccinated, it showed a lack of faith that God would protect and heal you.” “There was a belief permeating throughout the church that there is only faith and fear,” Arden said. Her child didn’t get another shot until Arden left the church in 2003. “When Amy Arden joined Eagle Mountain International Church in 1997, her 11-month-old daughter had received all the recommended vaccinations, Arden says.
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