Your Religious Exemption
"Your job or your conscience. Your education or your convictions."
Your religious beliefs must be SINCERE. This means you actually believe what you claim to believe.
You're not making it up just to avoid a rule or directive (in this case, the vaccine). The information I am
providing in this series is intended only for those with SINCERE religious beliefs that God prohibits them
from taking covid vaccines (because they originate in abortion, or for some other reason).
Your religious beliefs do *NOT* have to be "reasonable," or "correct," or "valid," or "proper," or
"acceptable," or "good," or ANYTHING ELSE other than SINCERE. No government, and no employer
or school, has the right to tell you what you "SHOULD" believe, or that what you believe is not "OK."
Once you have demonstrated that your religious belief is SINCERE (that you're not making it up), your
employer or school cannot deny you a religious exemption because they don't like or agree with YOUR
belief.
Your religious beliefs do *NOT* have to be "popular." You are entitled to an exemption even if you are
the last and only person on Earth that believes that abortion-derived vaccines are against God's law
against murder. Incidentally, there are many, many people who believe like you. But legally, that does not
matter. You have the right to your own, personal, individual, God-given conscience.
Do you ACTUALLY need an exemption?
--> If your employer or school is only "thinking about" or "talking about" mandating the vaccine,
there is no need to request a "pre-emptive exemption" before you are actually required to vaccinate. (I made that up - there is no such thing.)
--> If your employer or school is already providing an automatic alternative to vaccination (such as weekly testing), then you do not need an exemption. The religious exemption would only exempt you from the vaccine, NOT from the alternative, so don't bother with an exemption. Take the alternative, for now, even if it is annoying. For testing, employers should be paying for it, or it should be covered by insurance, so there should not be an out of pocket cost to you.
Get the procedure or form that your employer or school is using for religious exemptions.
--> Often, this will be distributed with the vaccine mandate. Or, it may be on the employer's or school's website. Search for it.
--> If you cannot find your employer's or school's form or procedure on your own, call the HR department or the school and ask them for it. This is NOT your actual religious exemption
request. This is your request for the PROCEDURE or FORM that you are expected to use to make your religious exemption request.
--> Hopefully, the efforts above will lead to you having a form to fill out, or the name of a person to email, to present your religious exemption request.
--> If your employer or school tells you that "we don't have religious exemptions," or "there is no
form or procedure for that" or something along those lines, they may be violating the law. Get this from them in writing.
--> If they won't put it in writing, send them a letter or email, to confirm what they told you. (For example: "Dear ______, I am confirming that on ________, I requested the company's form or procedure for requesting a religious exemption to the COVID vaccine requirement, and you indicated that no such form or procedure exists, and no exemptions are available. If I misunderstood you in any way, please let me know immediately.") Then, contact Liberty Counsel.
Once you have your school's or employer's form or procedure for requesting a religious exemption, study it carefully and make sure that you comply with it FULLY, COMPLETELY and
TIMELY. Do NOT ignore parts of it. Do NOT miss the deadline. This may give your employer a legal way to deny your exemption request.
--> the most important part of this form or process will be your PERSONAL statement, where you tell your school or employer IN YOUR OWN WORDS why your sincere religious convictions prohibit you from taking abortion-derived vaccines. We will cover this separately, with examples, later this week.
