Dear Ann:
I listened to your last Podcast and wanted to confirm and elaborate on what you said about obtaining religious exemption letters. As more employers are now requiring their employees to brutally attack their own genetic material as a condition of keeping their jobs, and as faithless, gutless Bishops are publicly proclaiming Catholics may morally receive the abortion-tainted death jabs in good conscience, I wanted to remind your readers of a couple basic legal points about religious exemptions under the federal Title VII religious discrimination laws.
First of all, to request a religious exemption from your employer, you are NOT REQUIRED to have a letter from a religious person (i.e. clergy) in authority to back up your request. All that is required to trigger your rights is to make it clear to your employer that you are requesting an exemption from “the vaccine” based on a sincerely held religious belief. There are no “magic words” you need to use, just enough to make it clear to your employer that you are refusing to take the jab out of a religious or moral conviction.
The second thing to keep in mind, even if you are Catholic and your bishop (or even a real Pope!) publicly proclaims that Catholics can morally receive “the vaccine”, you can still claim a religious exemption for a sincerely held religious belief. In other words, it doesn’t matter even if you are Catholic if your belief does not line up with the Vatican’s official position or it conflicts with Bergoglio’s opinions. This was made explicitly clear in two Supreme Court cases: U.S. vs. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 (1965) and Welsh vs. U.S., 398 U.S. 333 (1970). Although these were conscientious objector cases pertaining to the military draft, the courts have since applied the reasoning of these cases to Title VII religious discrimination cases.
Having said that, if you are able to obtain a religious exemption letter from your pastor or priest, that is a good thing. If an employer asks for one, as a practical matter, it will likely help secure an exemption from getting jabbed or provide support for some type of reasonable accommodation. Every situation must be evaluated on a case by case basis depending on the requirements of the job.
Lastly, it is true that the employer does not have to honor your request or make a reasonable accommodation if it causes the employer “undue hardship.” In religious exemption cases, that “undue hardship” standard is fairly easy for an employer to meet. Nevertheless, I wanted to remind your readers that they should not be discouraged or be shy about pushing back against these employer “vaccine” mandates just because their own priests and bishops are throwing them under the bus.
I hope this helps.
M.
