Dear all,
For purposes of religious exemption, is it accurate to say that all currently available COVID-19 vaccines are tainted with abortion somewhere in their production process? Or could an employer counter by saying "well if you don't like abortion then just take [some COVID vaccine that doesn't have this problem]?"
Thank you for your help.
Some jobs are requiring specificity in religious exemptions. Where I work, not only did you have to check several boxes at the top stating, basically, that you acknowledge that vaccines help society and you're being an asshole trying to weasel out of them (no option for Under Duress), but they wanted you to state exactly why the vaccines went against your beliefs, and to state quotes from your religious texts of choice to back you up. They even ask if you've had shots in the past and why this one, in particular, is objectionable if so.
I had a couple coworkers try to keep it short and sweet with "I'm a born christian, God is my only master. I do not submit to mandates from any other than Him." and were outright denied.
Not only that, they've recently stated that everyone who had been approved before was now considered "pending" once again while they tried to weed out even more people they believed weren't being sincere.
My husband just filed his on the company religious exemption form. He kept it simple, but the form states that more information might be necessary from our pastor for verification. But the fact they actually have this form and were readily providing it to employees was encouraging.
I find it insulting that some of these businesses think a religious exemption may need to include some kind of human "athority" to justify your personal beliefs and that your own religious conviction isn't good enough. I personally don't belong to a church. I don't believe a man of any title sits between me and God. If fact, I believe it violates our religious freedom to even be told we have to explain our beliefs in order to have our religious freedom respected. A religious exeption should only need to state "I claim religious exemption" and that is all. I really hope we see millions of lawsuits at the end of all this.
That sounds really awful. I'm sorry you have to go through that.
Asking about employees' specific religious beliefs doesn't seem legal. But then again we live in 🤡🌎
This is also WA state where Emperor Inslee can apparently deny us all our constitutional rights for whatever reason he likes, and the sheep all clap and ask for more.