![]() “An independent evangelist in Texas is offering letters to those who request them. In response to growing interest in these letters, some churches and pastors have made them available for download on their website. The letters “can help bolster claims that religious objections to the vaccine are sincere,” The New York Times reported. Sometimes, workers will bring a letter from a religious leader to their employer that outlines their beliefs, although such evidence is not required by employment law. “Note any comments made by the member that make it appear they are using the religious exemption as a ruse to avoid the vaccine,” the document said. The document instructed the chaplains to learn more about service members’ religious practices and beliefs in their meetings with those who’ve filed exemption requests. That’s one of the questions listed in a draft memo for Coast Guard chaplains that was obtained by the Deseret News last month. “Employers can request additional information from the employee, such as asking whether they take other medicines that also used fetal cells in their development, like Tylenol or Motrin,” NPR reported. It’s becoming more common for employers to ask follow-up questions about workers’ vaccine views in hopes of determining whether their concerns are sincere and based on religious beliefs, rather than political ones. “When it comes to vaccines against childhood diseases, where the danger did not seem great or immediate, many groups have just taken people’s word for it if they say their religious views prevent vaccination,” he wrote.īut today, as communities struggle to contain the spread of the delta variant and protect medically vulnerable people, including children, some companies are rethinking their past permissiveness. Before the pandemic, such an approach didn’t feel that risky, Laycock noted. This hesitancy helps explain why some employers approve all or nearly all requests for religious exemptions to vaccine mandates. “Many employers and governments alike have been reluctant to challenge religious exemption claims,” Laycock wrote. However, few company leaders have taken this approach, at least in part because doing so would break political and business norms. Laycock believes that, under current precedent, employers could make a successful case against offering any religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. ![]()
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