U.S. Military Uses Religious Test Against Service Members To Enforce Vaccine Mandate
The military is denying requests for religious exemptions because officials disagree with the theological views of service members.
By: Jay Richards | January 03, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/03/u-s-military-uses-religious-test-against-service-members-to-enforce-vaccine-mandate/

Members of our military pledge their loyalty to the Constitution. Its First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion. So, it would be perverse to force men and women in uniform to abandon their deeply held religious beliefs to serve their country.

Yet that’s what’s happening regarding the COVID-19 vaccine mandates — for which the normal rules seem not to apply.

The Air Force recently discharged its first active-duty members for declining to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Those 27 are likely the first batch of many to be discharged on these grounds. Thousands of our servicemen and women have requested religious exemptions. So far, not one has been granted.

A Direct Line from Abortion

Last September, an Air Force Academy graduate requested a religious exemption. As a Catholic, she objected to benefitting from vaccines developed or tested on cell lines derived from a procured abortion.

The reviewing chaplain denied her request. What’s troubling is that he did so on theological grounds. If this case were unique, we might not worry much about it. But this is just one example of many.

Not everyone agrees on the morality of taking COVID-19 vaccines. Even Catholic bishops do not agree on the matter. Some have called for ethical alternatives. Others have urged Catholics to get a vaccine.

But it’s not hard to construct a coherent objection to the drugs in question. Here goes.

Abortion is wrong. Benefitting from an abortion is wrong. All currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines were developed with or tested on fetal cell lines harvested from an abortion. To receive one of these vaccines is to benefit from an abortion.

Conclusion: Since I oppose abortion, I should avoid any of these vaccines.

This is not a complex argument. Yes, well-meaning people may dispute some or another premise. So what? The point is that one could sincerely and rationally believe this argument, and so have a moral objection to the vaccines.

In many cases, this is also a religious objection. A Catholic might believe that her faith teaches that procuring or actively securing a benefit from abortion is wrong. Many men and women in uniform believe this. As a result, the president’s mandate, as the military is executing it, threatens their religious conscience.

Questioning the Faith

Take the case of the Air Force grad rebuffed in September. The chaplain reviewing her request claimed her objection wasn’t a “sincerely held belief.” Why? Because she conceded that she took other drugs, such as Tylenol, which he claimed had also been “tested” on such cell lines.

She asked for the document backing up his claim on vaccine testing, and was sent a blog post written by a Catholic priest. Using a Google search, this priest had found that many common drugs such as Tylenol had at some point been “tested” on the same fetal cell lines in question. His argument was that one could not consistently take any of these drugs while refusing to take the authorized COVID vaccines.


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Very bad stuff.

Quote: Isailedaway wrote in post #4

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I think I read a federal judge stayed this for Navy Seals.

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Texas Attorney General Sues Biden for Vaccine Mandate on State Troops
“This is one of the many examples of federal overreach by the Biden Administration that my office is adamantly fighting against.”

By Jacob Asmussen | January 4, 2022

https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-attorney-general-sues-biden-for-vaccine-mandate-on-state-troops/

The nationwide fight over forced vaccinations continues in a U.S. district court in East Texas.

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden to stop him from forcing the Texas Army National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard to get injected with coronavirus vaccinations.

“Neither the President nor federal military officials can order the Governor of Texas and non-federalized National Guardsmen to comply with a vaccination mandate or to direct a particular disciplinary action for failure to comply,” Paxton’s office wrote in a press release. “President Biden is not those troops’ commander-in-chief; Governor Abbott is.”

The issue traces back to last year, when Biden administration officials decreed various coronavirus vaccine mandates for federal contractors, armed forces, and employers with more than 100 employees. While those orders have since been tied up in the courts, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature declined to pass a state law prohibiting such forced injections on citizens.



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