The Mennonite population being affected by a measles outbreak in West Texas is part of a larger, loosely affiliated group of churches worldwide with varied beliefs and leadership structures — and with sometimes strained or distant relations with health officials and other public authorities.

After Mennonites in Gaines County were singled out in discourse about the spread of measles in Texas, local pastor Jake Fehr hopes to set the record straight.

Opting against vaccines may uphold ideas of personal freedom, but it has doomed the county at the center of the Texas measles outbreak