Subject: Religious Exemption To Whom It May Concern: I, Yesenia Fuentes, as the parent of David Santos and Daniel Fuentes am exercising my right under the . I cant speak for everyone, but I think youre being overly simplistic. He explained he wasnt getting the flu shot because he read about it and they put like three kinds of junks in your arm. Should that person be scorned because he couldnt fully understand the science? All rights reserved, San Diego and California's COVID-19 Emergency Declarations Expire Tuesday. It would be unreasonable for employers to expect people of faith to live by their religious beliefs with 100 percent consistency. Psalms 23:4 - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. If he has one, hit didnt make it into the newsarticle. The injection stays at the site, doesnt move around the body, doesnt get stored in the liver, doesnt build up in the body. Many people are using Bible verses to justify their stance against vaccines. God bless you all. In other words, the justices had elevated religion above just about every other right, including free speech and racial equality, according to a report out today by Columbia Law Schools Law, Rights and Religion Project. If claims like the latter were adequate for religious exemptions, people could excuse themselves from nearly any rulesomething no one thinks is sustainable. This verse (1021) was written by Moses to warn God's people to stay away from some prohibited religious practices. It would have been far easier to obtain the cells from a miscarriage. The government policing people's religion raises a number of thorny issues. While sin has allowed creation to kick back, man still has the ultimately ability and responsibility to subdue it. Its a shortsighted strategy that will end up fueling government overreach, not curtailing it. But, it is true for too many Christians. These deficient exemption requests tend to fall into three categories of objections: personal autonomy, my body is a temple, or abortion complicity. To justify divorce in unwarranted circumstances, sexual immorality, sexual confusion, gender identity, and the like. Larry, youve mentioned this in several threads, and I have responded to this in several threads. In order to keep myself from sin, and receive Gods direction in life, I pray and ask God for wisdom and direction daily. Chip Ellis, who protested the vaccine mandate at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, told The Sun Herald that belief is in part why he submitted a request for a religious exemption. Three chapters later, Paul returns to the image of the temple, this time with individual Christians in view. Your information is being handled in accordance with the, How conspiracy theories undermine the common good. I also think that many people would be surprised at the how rapid the placebo affect is getting better. Perhaps most chillingly, at a time when Roe v. Wade and a host of other important rights are on the chopping block, the case shows how the Supreme Court can upend decades of precedent with relatively little outcry. Unless you're a member of a Dutch Reformed church or a Christian Science church, making a claim for a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine as a Christian is going to be hard to prove.. Therefore, Psalm 91 says if we make and say (Mark 11:23,24) that the Lord is our refuge and fortress then no pestilence or plague or evil shall come near our dwelling. , The percentage of white evangelicals who say they have been vaccinated or plan to get the shot as soon as possible was 56% in June, up from 45% in March (WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-evangelicals-resist-covid-19-vaccine). He is a supervisor in Theology and Religious Studies in the Cambridge Divinity Faculty, and he teaches courses for Ridley Hall and the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. Jeffrey Denny. Therefore, we can claim and live in all the promises of the Bible which he, by the power of the Holy Spirit, inspired men to write (II Timothy 3:16,17). Photo courtesy of Erin Kirschner, Dr. William Tseng from Kaiser Permanente in San Diego. Plenty of biblical precedent for making those remarks. They may not statistically do much, we may not understand what they do, and they may not have had safety testing. Religious exemptions risk blowing a hole in that shield, jeopardizing everyone. This argument is a non-starter. A service of Logos Bible Software. Help train Christians to boldly share the good news of Jesus Christ in a way that clearly communicates to this secular age. The problem is that the same people who eagerly promote anti-vaccine misinformation are just as eager to misuse religion to avoid . Paul follows this with fitting words for our time: So let no one boast about human leaders (3:21). Since then, the Christian right has been trying to do away with Smith in order to win ever-broader exemptions from laws that apply to everyone else. But a lot of the religious exemption claims I hear about don't have any real support in the Bible, or any other religious work. The thinking is that something is better thannothing. We just hope the behavior improvements are better than the side effects that practically everyonefaces. It is worth stating unambiguously that there is no evidence that any of these things are true of the available COVID vaccines, beyond some extremely rare and typically mild side-effects. With that said, many people might be surprised at the number of drugs that are in the marketplace that we have no clarity around what makes them work. When the Bible is placed in the hands of the people, void of any kind of authoritative religious community to guide them in their proper understanding of the text, the people can make it say. Freedom of religion plays an important role in our society, but it is always in danger of being abused and misused. People seeking an exemption on this basis are declaring themselves unwilling to harm their bodies, but this concern for physical well-beingwhile certainly validis a concern shared by everyone, religious or not. You may object and cite an abortion connection, freedom of conscience, and the like. But, he must also treat it with respect and care forit. Pre-COVID 19, Maine passed a law saying there would be no religious exemptions for medical workers in the case of vaccinations. Because their body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (6:19). "The most notable example was during the Vietnam and Korean [wars], people claiming religious exemptions from the draft.. So, he is not referring to you as an individual at all. Views reflected in this article may not reflect those of their current or previous employers. Why not? I was recently prescribed a statin after a recent exam, for high (though not ridiculous) LDL, and Im still trying to decide whether I want to start that medication or not. You are right that in 1 Cor. HEK293 cells are only used in testing to confirm antibodies are produced when the cells are exposed to thevaccine. -Joseph Grigg (1720-1768). That means they mix and prepare a drug at the pharmacy. So if we are going to talk about being careful with sources and data, then lets begin by being careful with sources and data. The Liberty Counsel is a Christian legal ministry. On a Friday evening in April, the Supreme Court quietly issued a short decision that opened the floodgates for religious entities to claim an exemption from just about any law. a. And why should they do this? So the noise is quiet and the only noise they hear is their doctor, or maybe no noise atall. While 1 Cor 3 is the church corporately, 1 Cor 6 is quite clear the individuals body. But often these are the same people eating Big Macs and chugging soda. Even many of the objector's coreligionists don't agree with him. I just think we need to be careful not to be too critical of those who choose not to bevaccinated. They consider vaccination a personal choice and argue the government shouldnt encourage or force employers to dictate this choice for workers. Your personal religious convictions do not sit under the judgment of others. Lets begin with Pauls first letter to the Corinthians itself. The biggest class of drugs that are an exemplar of this is the CNS class (or Central Nervous System). It is worth considering the implications of Pauls words if they did mean what those seeking exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine take them to mean. Claiming a religious exemption to the covid vaccine is not only asinine but it also weakens true religious exemption claims over legit issues forbelievers. Each of these, it seems, would violate the purity of their bodily temple, making it unsuitable as a vessel for the Holy Spirit. live, learn and work. But weve also seen Christian right firms advocating for a broader range of conservative policies.. Snow, Rain and Wind in the Forecast Yet Again. Vaccines violate our ability to follow the teachings of the Bible. And this may come just as Christians are about to need exemptions most. Ive seen 1 Corinthians 6:19 quoted in countless vaccine exemption requests. One could therefore see this litigation campaign as a form of COVID opportunism, using the pandemic as an opening to secure long-sought changes to religious liberty doctrine that will remain in effect even after the virus has subsided.. 2 Samuel 6:11 New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (NASB95) 11 Thus the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household. Seems kind of funny to me now like people are catching on fire all the time. At the same time, if our theological beliefs are sacred, then we should be unwilling to let people twist them for political or legal purposes. HEK293s origins are not absolutely clear. I know there are legitimate concerns, but there is plenty of information to address those concerns, if people understood how to navigatethat. I religiously object to wearing a life preserver when I go canoeing because lugging that thing along causes undue fatigue and my body is a temple and besides, there are studies that question the effectiveness of life vests and besides, I know how toswim. The church has been involved in COVID controversies before, criticized for holding indoor services against public health orders last year and ignoring masking rules. A group called One Washington is holding seminars around the state to instruct people on how to ask for a religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine. If youre using God as a free pass to escape a vaccine mandate, then youre violating the ThirdCommandment. (That the Court sided against religious objectors in this case may have to do with the fact that it concerned members of the Native American Church who had been denied unemployment benefits after they were fired for consuming peyote in a religious ritual.) This noise is going to grow and increase. In the context of vaccinations, this certainly includes seeking counsel, acknowledging the mounting evidence to the safety of vaccines, and contemplating the risks in refusing them, not only to oneself but also to ones neighbor. In the meantime, Kirschner is pleading with those who havent gotten vaccinated yet to reconsider, for her son's sake and others like him. Such statements have no place in the edifying speech that God requires ofus. Commentators cited Murdoch's deposition as evidence that the network couldn't be trusted to report the facts. The answer, it would seem, is that there is a long-standing precedent for exempting religious communities from government mandates, so people have reached for religious exemption as a ready-made solution for their fears. While a few employees might be entitled to religious exemptions from their employers vaccine policies, most of the real-life religious objections Ive seen fall short of the standard. Therefore it is not an equal protection clauseissue. be this my shame, That I no more revere His name. Bible verses about anxiety and fear 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV) Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Do mandatory vaccinations violate human rights? Jesuss body was made impure by his crucifixion in fact, thats a considerable part of the point. She just cant pull the God told me card or defend her position by twisting Scripture. The goal is not to vaccinate illegal immigrants, it is to remove them from the country. One manual circulated by Rita Palma, an anti-vax activist, advises people to include key words such as sacred, holy and blessed.. Whatever reasons a person may have for refusing vaccination, it is important to resist the temptation to endow those reasons with religious significance merely as a strategy for securing exemption from an employer mandate. From my perspective, what I call the abortion complicity objection is perhaps the strongest case. Pentagon Prepares for Island Combat in the Pacific as US-China Tensions Rise, Bidens Chip War With China Is an Imperial Struggle for High-Tech Supremacy, Republicans Are Working on Making 70 the New Social Security Retirement Age, Rupert Murdoch Admits Fox Hosts Were Endorsing False Election Fraud Claims, I Am Fired Up: Sanders, Warren Join Rally for Student Debt Cancellation, Voter Suppression Laws Are Targeting Youth But They Are Fighting Back, Pences Handling of COVID Is Straight Out of the Christian Right Playbook, A Christian Nationalist Group Is Quietly Shaping Bills for State Legislatures, DeSantis Plans to Skip CPAC, While Trump Remains Featured Speaker. I think its really important to remember that the Christian right is part of a larger conservative movement, Elizabeth Reiner Platt, one of the reports authors, told Truthout. In this type of situation, they would claim the requirements violate their religious beliefs and seek formal religious exemptions. 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