Pope Francis has called immunization against the coronavirus “a simple yet profound way to care for one another,” for example. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, objected to vaccines but said Christian Scientists should get them, where required. It’s not clear yet how the recent subtle shifts in doctrine will affect court cases related to religious exemptions for vaccine mandates.Ĭomplicating matters is that most faiths do not oppose vaccines. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, noted that the law allowed exemptions at the “sole discretion” of the city’s Department of Human Services commissioner if a city has an exemptions policy, Roberts wrote, it cannot refuse them to religious organizations without meeting a very high bar. Still, in a decision that struck some observers as hairsplitting, the court said the city had an obligation to grant an exemption from anti-discrimination laws to a Catholic adoption agency that declined to license same-sex couples to be foster parents. City of Philadelphia, which gave the court a chance to overturn Smith - and to say believers should be exempt from some generally applicable laws - it declined to do so. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit considers an appeal. In Fulton v. Newsom, for instance, it blocked California from enforcing coronavirus restrictions on private gatherings, including at-home religious services, while the U.S. (For a hearing on vaccine mandates in Massachusetts, a parent wrote to lawmakers that she made use of a religious exemption in 2020 for the flu vaccine, “not because it goes against my religion, but because I do not believe that it is necessary to put additional chemicals into my child’s body.”) But the political battles over coronavirus vaccination have driven more people to seek ways around the laws.īut in the past year, the Supreme Court has indicated that it intends to strengthen protections for religious liberty - although the full contours of the change are unclear. This is not a new phenomenon, nor one limited to the coronavirus vaccines. Religious leaders have offered to sign letters requesting exemptions for anyone who wants one - for payment, or free. Writes one such person, on Facebook: “RULE #4 in writing a religious exemption: Do not mention c0v-id 19, side effects, or scientific data! Do not mention the V is under E-U-A,” or emergency-use authorization. It’s easy to find people online, for example, coaching others on how to pretend that freedom of worship is the real issue. We know that Americans game religious exemptions, because they tell us.
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