Judging ‘sincerely held’ religious belief is tricky for employers mandating vaccines

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Brittany Watson, Katherine Hart, Dawn Carlisle and Amanda Mackanos protest vaccine mandates outside Winchester Medical Center in August in Winchester, Va.

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«I possibly would have gotten it if it wasn’t such a push to get it, Watson says. «And then they mandate it. Now you’re telling me what to do. I’ve worked 18 months in the pandemic, and now I’m not allowed to work there if I don’t have a vaccine.

Whether an employer grants a religious exemption to a vaccination requirement is generally based on a judgment of the employee’s sincerely held religious belief — and whether the accommodation poses an undue hardship on the employer, or would present a direct threat to health and safety of others.

Watson organized a picket line outside the Winchester Medical Center in protest of Valley Health’s mandate. She also applied for a religious exemption, signed by her pastor.

«My explanation was that ‘Human life is sacred. The Bible tells you that your body is a temple. The vaccine is made from aborted fetuses. The mandate is directly affecting my religious beliefs.’ And that’s it, she says.

The vaccines themselves do not contain any fetal cells. Fetal cell lines were used in the vaccines’ development, as they commonly are in developing new pharmaceuticals.

Valley Health did approve her religious exemption, but Watson has decided to look for a job elsewhere.

Watson’s girlfriend, Katherine Hart, also had her religious exemption approved by Valley Health. After striking for three weeks, Hart returned to her job as a nurse practitioner at an urgent care center in Martinsburg, W.Va.

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Brittany Watson and Katherine Hart protested their employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. They applied for and received religious exemptions.

Brittany Watson

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Brittany Watson

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A person receives the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Los Angeles in April.

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But the politicization of this virus has changed that.

«The folks that are most angry now or most objecting now are kind of a new cohort, I’d say, that is much more traditionally politically motivated, Kieffer says.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. As religious exemptions are now being sought in droves, their use raises concerns that they pose a serious public health risk.

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Participants bow their heads in prayer during a COVID-19 prayer vigil on the National Mall honoring and mourning those who have died due to the coronavirus pandemic in Washington, D.C., in July.

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Politics
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«Obviously, scripture does not talk about vaccines, he says, laughing. «So how do we seek principles and use wisdom to apply rightly, how someone needs to live in their consciences, but not in a way that’s silly?

He says vaccine concerns are something that some people are struggling with, among many other questions in their lives. He hears concerns that the vaccines are still too new, too untested — but people might not have a choice about getting vaccinated, if they want to keep their jobs.

McKnight says if a member asked for his signature on a religious exemption, he thinks he would sign it.

«Part of my role is to stand with the underdog. That’s what Jesus did, he says. «And that’s why we’re working at trying to figure out how to get Afghan refugees here, why we’re working at trying to help migrant workers. Nurses that are going to lose their job because they’re just not ready to be vaccinated just seems a little harsh right now in a civilized world.

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Sharon Lofquist raises her arms to religious music as demonstrators gathered to protest vaccine mandates outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing in August.

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Sharon Lofquist raises her arms to religious music as demonstrators gathered to protest vaccine mandates outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing in August.

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Others suspect resistance to vaccination is politically motivated

Randall Balmer was raised in the evangelical church, and is now a professor of religion at Dartmouth and an Episcopal priest.

He suspects much of the opposition to the vaccines is politically motivated.

«I have to believe that something else is at work here, that there is some sort of underlying ideology that says, I don’t know: ‘We don’t want the Biden administration to succeed in vanquishing this public health crisis,’ he says.
«There’s certainly no theological basis for this sort of opposition.

And he thinks many churches could be doing a greater public service in the pandemic, noting that they enjoy tax-exempt status.

Balmer says «a reasonable approach to this dire public health crisis would be for these churches, these religious organizations to say, ‘Listen, we understand that the public has been subsidizing us for a long time. In return, we think we have a civic obligation, and we’re willing to assume that obligation not only to be vaccinating ourselves, but to vaccinate others.’

«And I even dare say that this might be what Jesus would do in a similar situation, he says.