Federal intimidation of Christians

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) -- It appears that the anti-Christian Biden administration is engaging in another attempt to intimidate conservative Christians into silence and inaction. And unlike some other measures, this one was taken in a manner to keep the public unaware.

Here is what is going on: At least 19 federal agencies have announced that those employees who are seeking a religious (or conscience) exemption to Mr. Biden’s order that all federal employees must be vaccinated against COVID will be required to provide the government with certain personal information that raises concerns about how that information may be used.

[Editor’s Note: A federal court in Texas on January 21 issued an injunction against President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the federal workforce, thus pausing implementation of the requirement for over 2 million civil servants. The Biden administration has filed an appeal.]

The first whiff of this move came to me in a small news story January 12 and we immediately contacted the Heritage Foundation which had uncovered the story and booked a senior fellow from Heritage’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Attorney Sarah Parshall Perry, for our next Faith On Trial Radio Program, January 20.

While the full extent of the administration’s actions have not been fully reported, here is what we do know: Employees applying for the vaccine exemption will need to provide not only their names and addresses, but maiden names, length and depth of religious practice, among other things, including — of all things — physical characteristics and identifiers.

The information came from a little-known publication called the Federal Register in which federal agencies are required to publish notices of proposed rule changes. The notice allows interested parties to file objections to proposed rules. Under the federal Administrative Procedures Act, agencies may not adopt or enforce a rule until such notice is published and the time period for public comment has ended.

Then before the final adoption of the rule, the agency involved will presumably review the comments submitted and adopt, reject, or modify the proposed rule. The usual time for comment is around 60 days.

However, what spooked the Heritage folks was that this rule was being proposed by a relatively obscure agency, the Pre-trial Service Agency for the District of Columbia. And after a little more digging, Heritage investigators found another 18 agencies had proposed similar rules giving the public a 30-day comment window. In addition, the Heritage investigators found that those applying for the religious exemption were to be included in agency databases that could be shared with other federal agencies.

According to the Heritage Foundation, the federal government employs around four million people and has tens of thousands of employees who are asking for a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate. Thus there are tens of thousands of people who will be entered into this federal database.

“We find this to be incredibly problematic, especially since we don’t know what that information will be used for,” Perry told our radio audience.

The Heritage Foundation was not the only entity to notice what was going on. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt also found the notices, did his own investigation, and filed comments with the agencies seeking clarifications, noting that this suggests the administration is putting together a black list of religious objectors.

“It appears that the Privacy Act of 1974 which was ultimately designed to shield employees is being used by the federal government as a cudgel so that if you express your religious [objections to the mandate] you are automatically entered into this database. We’re going to start asking some questions to find out what the government wants to do with this information.”

Several other things are playing in the background that must be considered. First is the profile of those objecting to the vax mandate on religious grounds. By and large they are pro-life conservative Christians who object to using a vaccine that was developed with any connection to an abortion.

What connection does the government see between conservative Christians, who are attacked politically for their support of former President Donald Trump, and the white nationalists, white supremacists, skinheads, and neo-Nazis that Mr. Biden calls the foremost threat to the safety of the nation?

Only recently we reported the military was threatening court-marshals, punitive and criminal actions, and forced repayment of all training expenses, against any service member who refused to take the vaccine. To date, of all the military requests for a religious exemption to the vax mandate, only four were approved. One wonders what the rationale behind such a sweeping policy could be.

Also noteworthy is the action of the chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, in urging sailors to read How to be an Antiracist, by the controversial woke author Ibram X. Kendi, shortly after the death of George Floyd. Why was the top military brass suggesting that young seamen, some only weeks out of high school, read this controversial book by this controversial author?

Then there is this little fact that the Heritage investigators found. In questionnaires submitted to those federal employees seeking an exemption, the applicant stating a pro-life view was asked if he had ever taken the over-the-counter drug Tylenol. When the applicant responded in the affirmative, the applicant were told he had waived his right to object since in its development, the makers of Tylenol had used fetal cells from aborted babies, thus negating their objection.

A small column like mine is not the place to discuss all the questions raised. But I do think it is the place to raise some questions, such as:
Who initiated this new “database” policy? Was it elements of the deep state? The Biden administration? Or even Mr. Biden himself?

Why was there an attempt to keep it hidden by use of a limited 30-day comment period?
What is to become of the database, and the people listed?
How do the agencies’ actions and those of the military fit with Mr. Biden’s belief that white nationalists pose a security risk to the nation and are akin to terrorists?
And perhaps the most important question of all: Why are pro-life Christians being so targeted? Is this an attempt to intimidate and silence them or just a routine bureaucratic over-reach?

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com. Sarah Perry’s interview can be heard here: https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/faith/episode/28e89565/religious-exemptions-to-vaccine-mandate-12022.)