https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/opinion/religious-exemptions-vaccine-mandates.html
A Christian’s Case Against Exemptions to Vaccine Mandates
Sept. 6, 2021
Woody Harrington
By Curtis Chang
Curtis Chang is a co-founder of Christians and the Vaccine, a consulting
faculty member at Duke Divinity School and the C.E.O. of CWR, a management
consultancy serving secular nonprofits and government agencies.
Religious exemptions to employer mandates are a precious right in our
democracy. This is why it is especially important not to offer such exemptions
to coronavirus vaccine mandates. They make a mockery of Christianity and
religious liberty.
Now that the Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the
Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, government agencies, universities and
businesses are instituting vaccination requirements. This has prompted a wave
of requests from individuals to opt out of such requirements by claiming a
religious exemption.
The legal basis of this request is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,
which requires American employers to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs.
One evangelical church near Sacramento has reportedly issued more than 3,000
letters requesting exemptions, and a pastor in Brooklyn told The New York Daily
News that 60 percent of his congregation has asked for them. Given that
evangelicals account for a substantial portion of people refusing vaccination,
especially in the Delta-ravaged Bible Belt, the road to ending the pandemic may
very well now run through the religious exemption issue.
According to the Civil Rights Act, these exemptions are meant to apply to
people with “sincerely held religious beliefs,” and on both counts — religious
belief and sincerity — the exemption demand fails when it comes to coronavirus
vaccine mandates for Christians.
First, there is no actual religious basis for exemptions from vaccine mandates
in any established stream of Christianity. Within both Catholicism and all the
major Protestant denominations, no creed or Scripture in any way prohibits
Christians from getting the vaccine. Even the sect of Christian Scientists,
which historically has abstained from medical treatment, has expressed openness
to vaccines for the sake of the wider community. The consensus of mainstream
Christian leaders — from Pope Francis to Franklin Graham — is that vaccination
is consistent with biblical Christian faith.
Biblically based arguments against vaccination have been rebutted. The project
Christians and the Vaccine, which I helped to found, has created numerous
explainer videos in an effort to refute attempts by anti-vax Christians to
hijack pro-life values, to distort biblical references like the “mark of the
beast” and to inflame fears about government control. Christians who request
religious exemptions rarely even try to offer substantive biblical and
theological reasoning. Rather, the drivers for evangelical resistance are
nonreligious and are rooted in deep-seated suspicion of government and
vulnerability to misinformation.
My plea to my fellow Christians: If you insist on refusing the vaccine, that is
your right. But please do not bring God into it. Doing so is the very
definition of violating the Third Commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain.”
A private entity like a hospital can feel confident that it is not infringing
on the religious liberty of an evangelical receptionist by insisting that he be
vaccinated as part of his job requirement. My religious liberty is actually
advanced by the ability of institutions to define job requirements for their
employees. I want my church to be able to hire pastors who share our
institution’s beliefs — and to be able to reject candidates who don’t. This
means I must also support the right of a secular hospital to make a similar
choice. Moral consistency demands it.
Exemption requests also likely fail on the grounds of sincere belief. We
naturally look for consistency of a belief as a test of sincerity; it’s common
sense. We would doubt the sincerity of a receptionist who demands vegetarian
options at a workplace cafeteria when he frequently eats steak at restaurants.
Any institution considering religious exemptions should require applicants to
demonstrate that they have consistently refused other immunizations for
religious reasons.
Vaccine hesitancy has never been a core religious belief of evangelical
Christians. The vast majority of evangelicals have historically chosen to be
immunized against polio, measles, tetanus and other diseases. As a child, I
attended evangelical summer camps that required vaccinations, and as an adult,
I worked for ministries with similar mandates. Some conservative evangelicals
just don’t like the political taste of this particular vaccine on the menu.
Even if we grant that individual Christians sincerely (though mistakenly)
believe that their religious faith prohibits a coronavirus vaccination, that
still does not justify an exemption. “Sincerity” does not justify putting
others at risk. I can sincerely (though mistakenly) believe I should sacrifice
a burnt offering to God. All the sincerity in my heart does not justify my
setting my neighbor’s house on fire in the process.
There are, however, proper applications for religious exemptions in other
cases. For instance, if my employer offered a mindfulness seminar that required
me to utter incantations to a New Age deity, I as a Christian should be able to
request a religious exemption. The biggest threat to any legitimate right is
the illegitimate abuse of that right.
But even with legitimate religious claims sincerely held, the law allows
companies to forgo offering exemptions if doing so places an “undue hardship”
on the employer. Increasing the risk of bringing an infectious disease into the
workplace certainly qualifies. For jobs that involve exposure to vulnerable
populations, minimizing that risk via immunization is clearly an appropriate
job requirement. Religious freedom for a teacher who opposes vaccines does not
mean having the right to jeopardize children by being unvaccinated. Religious
freedom means that if she doesn’t wish to fulfill her employer’s job
requirement, she is free to find another job.
All employers should eliminate any religious exemptions for coronavirus
vaccines for Christians, period. New York State has removed its religious
exemption option for health care workers, and other institutions should follow
suit.
Similarly, religious leaders will need to join with secular institutions in
opposing exemptions. Pastors are already being inundated with requests for
letters supporting exemptions. As a former pastor of an evangelical church, I
know it will be difficult to say “no.” But my colleagues should do the right
thing and refuse such requests. Refuse to mislead our secular neighbors. Refuse
to abuse our precious religious liberty. Refuse to be complicit in putting our
neighbors at risk.
We need to keep trying to persuade those hesitant to get a vaccine. But we also
need to allow employer vaccine mandates to erect a trustworthy shield that
protects staff members, patients, customers, students and others. Religious
exemptions risk blowing a hole in that shield, jeopardizing everyone.
The vaccine effort has been plagued by falsehoods of all kinds. The religious
exemption from vaccine mandates for Christians is the latest lie. All of us
should stand together for the truth.
Curtis Chang is a co-founder of Christians and the Vaccine, a consulting
faculty member at Duke Divinity School and the CEO of CWR, a management
consulting firm serving secular nonprofits and government agencies.
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