Many faith leaders wary of religious exemptions for vaccine

By the thousands, Americans have been seeking religious exemptions in order to circumvent COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but generally they are doing so without the encouragement of major denominations and prominent religious leaders.

From the Vatican, Pope Francis has defended the vaccines as “the most reasonable solution to the pandemic.” The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America declared categorically that its followers would not be offered religious exemptions. Robert Jeffress, the conservative pastor of a Baptist megachurch in Dallas, voiced similar sentiments.

“Since there is no credible biblical argument against vaccines, we have refused to offer exemptions to the handful of people who have requested them,” Jeffress told The Associated Press via email. “People may have strong medical or political objections to governmentmandated vaccines, but just because those objections are strongly felt does not elevate them to a religious belief that should be accommodated.”

Rabbi Sholom Lipskar of The Shul of Bal Harbour, an Orthodox synagogue in Surfside, Florida, says he tells congregation members that vaccination should be a matter of free choice.

“But I always recommend that they get a medical opinion from a competent professional,” he added. “In a serious matter, they should get two concurring medical opinions.”

Within the U.S. Catholic Church, there are divisions even though Pope Francis has been clear in his support for vaccinations. While some bishops have forbidden their priests from assisting in seeking exemptions, other bishops and priests have provided template letters for people claiming conscientious objections from the vaccines on Catholic grounds.

“We have had many requests and have helped quite a number process their letter/request,” the Rev. Bob Stec of St. Ambrose Catholic Parish in Brunswick, Ohio, said via email.

“Vaccination is not a universal obligation and a person must obey the judgment of his or her own informed and certain God-given conscience,” says one of the letters provided by Stec. “If a Catholic comes to an informed and sure judgment in conscience that he or she should not receive a vaccine, then the Catholic Church acknowledges that the person . has the right to refuse the vaccine.”

It’s different in New Jersey’s Archdiocese of Newark, which has advised its priests not to support religious exemptions for their parishioners.

“I have been asked about six times and have declined,” said the Rev. Alexander Santora, pastor of Our Lady of Grace & St. Joseph Parish in Hoboken.

Candice Buchbinder, a spokesperson for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in

America, said the denomination is currently studying the question of religious exemptions. She noted that previous ELCA documents opposed broad religious exemptions and viewed medicine as “a gift of God for the good of the community.”

Even before the pandemic, the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council made clear its stance - adopting a resolution in June 2019 calling for stronger government vaccination mandates.

“The Executive Council recognizes no claim of theological or religious exemption from vaccination for our members,” the resolution said.

However, someone from a denomination that encourages vaccines can still seek an exemption based on individual conscience, said Bruce Ledewitz, a law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Ledewitz said he would advise a client wanting a religious exemption to say simply, “I have prayed about this, and I have come to the conclusion that God does not want me to take this vaccine.”

Employers have adopted widely varying approaches to such arguments - some granting many exemptions while others, including the U.S. military services, have granted very few.

While reasons for seeking religious exemptions vary, many Christians have cited the COVID-19 vaccines’ remote connection to past abortions. Laboratorygrown cell lines descended from fetuses that were aborted decades ago were used to test the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and to grow viruses used to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. None of those vaccines contain fetal cells.

The Vatican has stated that receiving these COVID-19 vaccines is morally acceptable. While it opposes abortion-related research, it said any vaccine recipient is not culpable for involvement in it, given how remote they are from the abortions involved.

While the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has echoed the Vatican teaching, several bishops have assisted people seeking religious exemptions.