Actor Rockmond Dunbar, best known for portraying Kenny Chadway in Showtime’s series adaptation of the classic film “Soul Food,” has lost his federal lawsuit against Disney-owned 20th Century Television. Filed in response to Disney’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees on its productions — including the Angela Bassett-led hit series “9-1-1” — Dunbar’s suit claimed the requirement violated his religious beliefs. A federal judge ruled against him on Oct. 17.
However, as Variety reports, Dunbar did not receive support from the Congregation of Universal Wisdom once they discovered that Dunbar’s argument had little to do with their beliefs, which eschews vaccines and other medical advancements, his argument, to them, appeared to only be against the COVID-19 vaccine in particular, which the group described as “sacrilegious” in court documents procured by the outlet.
Dunbar argued in court that, “Man created the COVID-19 vaccine to separate you from God. This is a spiritual war. This is a war of evil against good. I stood on the side of good. I stood on the side of God. I stood on the shoulders of God.”
Dunbar maintained during his testimony that although he takes synthetic testosterone injections and anastrozole, this simply makes him far from “perfect,” and not the hypocrite that the church appears to have cast him as.
Dunbar continued, noting that his work on the show was his “dream job. It was like winning the lottery. I’m underwater. I’ve spent my entire retirement. This has taken my life into a hole financially that I will never be able to get out of.”
He maintained to the jury that he is not an anti-vaxxer, despite his uncritical regurgitation of conspiracy theories that the COVID-19 vaccine has killed more people than the actual virus, he believes his ordeal is a spiritual test from God.
“Take my cars, my money — I don’t care. You have to leave here with your soul intact,” he told the court. “This is my spiritual test and I passed.”
In contrast to Dunbar’s wild claims, The Economist estimated in a 2022 report that because of the way death totals regarding the pandemic were calculated, any death tolls are likely a conservative figure, still, they noted that in North America alone, which includes the United States, that more than 1.2 million people are estimated to have died from COVID-19.
In order for Dunbar’s ascientific assertion to be correct, there would have to be a significantly higher death toll, because as of May 2025, USA Facts estimates that 230,637,348 Americans, or 70% of the population, are considered fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
Dunbar, however, still appears to be firmly entrenched in his religious beliefs, which even his lawyer, Scott Street, referred to as “kooky” while defending his client. Outside the courtroom, Dunbar was unwavering, noting to reporters his belief that “God still won today.”
Which God? According to Deadline, as the four-day trial went on, it exposed that the Congregation of Universal Wisdom operates like a cult wrapped up in a kind of spiritual Ponzi scheme.
For the low price of $1, anyone can join octogenarian Walter P. Schilling’s religious-sounding outfit as long as they agree to abide by his rules, which apparently includes forsaking the scientific understanding that vaccines exist, in part, to protect people from the most dire consequences of viral infections.
Although the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine was criticized for appearing to prioritize white Americans over Black Americans, due to the existence of a hesitancy and vaccination gap among Black and Latinx populations to receive the vaccine, which appears to have led to a disproportionate mortality rate for those populations; those initial imbalances have lessened over time, although, as KFF reported in 2023, a vaccination gap remains for both Black and Latinx Americans.
To be clear, at least part of the problem as it relates to Black Americans is the historical context attached to Black people and the medical system, this is not helped by the propagation of conspiracy theories anchored in anti-vaxxer sentiment, which, despite his protests, Dunbar at least appears to traffick in, and the present-day mistreatment and misdiagnosis of Black Americans within the medical system.
A 2021 University of Colorado-Boulder study regarding the phenomena described as vaccine hesitancy, that is, the cognitive mechanisms underlying decisions to receive (or not receive) the COVID-19 vaccine, established that the best practice to increase Black Americans’ willingness to inoculate themselves against the virus was not a message of fear.
That is to say, instead of a message centering death or other adverse effects of not receiving the vaccine, the more effective approach centers messages regarding the vaccine’s efficacy against the COVID-19 virus itself.
As the study noted in its conclusion, “Although fear appeals can be crucial in overcoming complacency in the short term, prolonged and heightened fear can backfire, causing avoidance and detachment. As individual reactions to COVID-19 are more indicative of fatigue and burnout than complacency, the attitudinal shift requires a corresponding shift in vaccination promotion strategies. Instead of focusing on risks and fear, it is critical that “fear regimes should be replaced with regimes of hope.”
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