Vaccine Resisters Seek Religious Exemptions. But What Counts as Religious?
Ruth Graham of The New York Times reports, “As more employers across the country begin requiring Covid vaccinations for workers, they are butting up against the nation’s sizable population of vaccine holdouts who nonetheless see their resistance in religious terms—or at least see an opportunity.” The requests for religious exemptions are predicated upon the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees based on their “sincerely held” religious beliefs. Many of the reasons cited in the exemption requests, however, may be deemed political and secular in nature. Graham writes, “The new battle over vaccine exemptions is especially fraught, pitting religious liberty concerns against the priority of maintaining a safe environment.”