Religious exemptions… Not always popular with some elements

By Deacon Mike Manno

During the past few years we have been overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic — or, perhaps it would be better rephrased as: over the last few years we have been overwhelmed by the governmental response to the pandemic.

We have seen lockdowns, mask requirements, and other “public health” measures imposed by officials who were either working for the public good, to protect the population from the dreaded disease, or, as heard from many quarters, they were working to control and impose their own hidden agendas.

That latter observation is bolstered by the fact that there were churches which were not only required to be closed while strip clubs and abortions facilities were allowed to remain open, but were fined and pastors threatened with imprisonment if they dared open their doors.

In one venue, a church held its services in its parking lot where everyone stayed in their cars and the service was conducted over a low-power FM radio band. The cops still showed up and tagged the cars.

And still at this date, churches and houses of worship whose leaders took the local officials to court and won are still in litigation over the amount of damages to which they are entitled. Just recently the Pacific Justice Institute settled such a case on behalf of five churches for a six-figure award.

But among all the confusion between blue and red states over how far the “emergency” COVID restrictions should go, none seemed to be as clear cut and near to home as the mandates that required people to get the vaccine as a condition of continued employment. And nothing exacerbated the situation more than the ability or, too often, the inability to obtain a religious exemption to that mandate.

For most religious objectors, their problem with the vaccine had to do with its tie to an aborted cell line that was 50 years old. From it vaccine manufacturers were able to create cells that could be divided which allowed them to reproduce. Those cells were then used for the testing of two of the popular vaccines; the third manufacturer used the cells as part of its manufacturing process.

Thus, for some pro-lifers, use of the vaccine was something akin to a pact with the devil, and so they refused the vaccine with, admittedly, good reason. But too often employers were not looking for a good reason, only an easy fix, especially in places where the government was forcing employees to choose, a jab or a job.

A lot of ink, broadcast time, and bandwidth was spent airing this conflict and it was interesting to see how the public felt about the issue.

The folks from Pew Research did just that, reporting that the question of religious exemptions was more controversial than many had expected and might signal an advance warning for many Catholics and religious conservatives whose objection to the vaccine is tied to the vaccine’s link to the aborted fetal cells mentioned above.

Pew conducted the survey of 10,441 people from March 7 to 13. The survey was weighted to represent the entire adult population of the United States by gender, race, ethnicity, party affiliation, educational, “and other categories.”

The term “weighted” in reference to opinion polls makes a lot of people nervous, and, of course, it can be used to create a false result for an unethical polling firm. Rather, it is a statistical device to prevent the oversampling or underrepresentation of different groups by conforming the group’s responses to its actual percentage of the population.

It found that 67 percent of those surveyed believed that “most people with religious objections are just using religion as an excuse to avoid the vaccine.” Thirty-two percent of those people felt that employees with religious exemptions should still be required to get the jab or lose their jobs. Among the skeptics to religious exemptions, 37 percent believed the objectors should lose their jobs if they refused the vaccination; only 29 percent said they should be allowed to keep their jobs.

Of the 31 percent who believed that “most people with religious objections sincerely believed getting a COVID-19 vaccine is against their religion,” 62 percent said that they should be allowed to keep their jobs despite an employer mandate.

Interestingly, while 43 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents thought those seeking the exemption were sincere, 55 percent believed religion was simply being used as an excuse. Seventy-seven percent of the Democrats, on the other hand, and those leaning that way, including atheists, agnostics, and “nothing in particular” felt religion was an excuse.

On the question of whether workers who refuse to comply with their employer’s mandate should be able to keep their jobs, 82 percent of those in the Republican category thought they should while only 46 percent in the Democrat camp agreed. Catholics were slightly higher in their belief that religion was an excuse than Protestants, 66 percent to 59 percent. But Catholics were more supportive of the employee keeping his job by 31 percent to the Protestants’ 24 percent.

According to the survey, 27 percent said employers should not mandate the vaccine, 44 percent said employers should only encourage the jab, and 29 percent said employers should require the vaccine.

Well, there are a lot of numbers and I’ll leave it to people wiser than I to make sense of them. For myself, I see a few problems that the survey uncovered. First is the woeful lack of compassion for those who have a sincerely held religious belief, such as a pro-life Christian conservative.

But beyond that, why? Is it a failure to recognize the legitimate concern over the connection with abortion? Does it mean abortion is an issue that is easily marginalized? Would a stronger response from Church leaders respecting the concerns of the pro-lifers have changed attitudes?

I confess that I don’t know the answers to any of these questions or the mountain of other questions that this survey can generate. Maybe some graduate student might pick this up for a master’s thesis. I have some suspicions but I’ll allow someone with better analytical skills to do it. 

+ + (You can reach Mike at DeaconMike@q.com, and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)