Is there any religion that condones infecting someone with a deadly disease or committing murder by doing the same? If someone’s religion does that, they might want to consider getting a different religion!
I’m talking about religious exemptions against vaccines, Covid vaccines in particular. For the latter, judges or policy makers shouldn’t accept them because that would be aiding and abetting a crime. We’re in a national, no international, health emergency. Emergency actions trump any and every religious exemption. Period.
I’d find humorous this excuse aka claiming religious exemptions proposed by some healthcare workers, teachers, and first responders (cops and firefighters for the most part) if refusing to be vaccinated weren’t such a serious issue. Basing their arguments on the use of stem cells in the vaccine research is absurd, even if true. They might even consider that a more reasonable argument than the one where it’s a government (Apple, Google, Microsoft?) conspiracy to inject microchips into people to control them, but so what? All of these are lame excuses. Many far-right Catholic fundamentalists use the first. That’s even more absurd because the Pope, the leader of the Catholic Church and the world’s conscience on many issues, is vaccinated! Any Catholic using this excuse should be excommunicated! They’re going against the Holy Father’s teachings. (Of course, Catholic fundamentalists are fascists; the Pope isn’t.)
But there’s more to this resistance, isn’t there? Any religious exemption purports to be a moral determination, no matter who makes it, but what’s more immoral than sickening your fellow human beings or killing them? Beyond any religious beliefs, Catholic or otherwise (Evangelicals are often worse), there’s the higher morality that any religion must aim for, a morality that considers the sanctity of all life. If there is a hell beyond those on Earth, may all the anti-vaxers find their way there, the sooner the better! While there’s nothing nobler than giving up your life for a friend—thank you, St. John—there’s nothing more damning than taking someone’s life through your selfish inaction. That applies to war not just pandemics. And this pandemic is a moral war we’re fighting. Please don’t cause any more casualties in this war with your evil choices!