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Meditation 1369
Church Exemptions

by: JT

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Last month I got an e-mail request:

Greetings from Brooklyn New York! I am a college student and i would like to know if you can grant me religious exemption from the covid vaccine. This is a time sensitive issue. Can you please Furbish a Letter of exemption !? i Do not believe in this vaccine and i Need To be exempted from taking it. Please help. SOS. I will Join your church if I have to please. -- J___ L___

I was rather curt in my response, referring J.L. to Ask The Patriarch 82 in which I dealt with a similar (but better written) query about union dues. But given that at least one arguably morally corrupt preacher went public with his willingness to sign a vaccine exemption to anyone who joined and donated to his church, I suspect that J.L probably managed to find his "religious exemption" elsewhere.

I must ask "Why are church exemptions of any kind accepted in cases where secular reasons are not?"

Church exemptions are permitted in various jurisdictions for laws relating to compulsory military service, union membership, medical issues, taxes, use of banned substances (e.g. peyote, alcoholic beverages) and probably a number of other issues.

If there are sound reasons for not serving in your nation's military, then those reasons should be valid whether or not some religion backs you up.

If there are sound reasons for not joining a union, then those reasons should be valid whether or not some religion backs you up.

If there are sound reasons for not following a medical practice proven to safely protect your health and that of others, then those reasons should be valid whether or not some religion backs you up.

If there are sound reasons for altering your consciousness by consuming peyote, then those reasons should be valid whether or not some religion backs you up.

If there are sound reasons for an organization not paying taxes while receiving the full range of public services provided to tax-paying organizations, then those reasons should be valid whether or not some religion is involved.

Arguably, one of the reasons for accepting a religious exemption was that it provided some kind of verification that the individual's request was sincere.

But, as J.L.'s request for an exemption shows and as the availablity of religious exemptions for cash" shows, there is no guarantee of honesty at all in the process. It can be just liars supporting liars.

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