Even before the Pfizer vaccine received full FDA approval, public and private employers across the United States began to announce vaccine mandates for their employees. With the COVID-19 vaccine’s FDA approval, we will only see more of them. For many Christians, these mandates spark concerns about religious freedom as multiple states have moved toward minimizing religious exemptions for vaccination requirements, and a growing number of employers, including here in Minnesota, have begun mandating COVID-19 vaccinations.
Vaccine mandates are a bad idea
Recently, one Minnesota employer expressed optimism that mandating vaccines would “help” any employees who were on the fence about the vaccine to change their minds. But coercion is not how “persuasion” works. Vaccine mandates show a deep disrespect for people’s ability to make rational decisions for themselves, and because of this, they remove the possibility of meaningful and respectful conversations about the vaccine. This kind of disrespect is on display in New York City right now, where anyone who wishes to dine indoors must present proof of vaccination. Recently, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that people may dine indoors immediately after receiving the first dose of the vaccine. Since immunity does not begin immediately upon receiving the first dose of the vaccine, there is good reason to suspect that this mandate has far less to do with preventing the spread of COVID-19 than it has to do with asserting control and punishing those who choose not to get vaccinated.
Considering that nearly 75% of American adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, mandates use a highly unpersuasive and coercive method to target a small percentage of people. Furthermore, the concerns of those who are hesitant to take a vaccine that has been on the market for less than a year and has known risks should not be dismissed lightly. Phillip Klein has pointed out that the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine was on the market for over a decade before it was mandated for a very limited demographic with room for exemptions.
Additionally, while doctors and hospitals around the country point to low hospitalization rates among vaccinated people as a sign that the vaccine effectively prevents severe symptoms of COVID-19, there is increasing evidence that vaccinated people are still able to spread the Delta variant, potentially at the same rate as unvaccinated people. In other words, the vaccine primarily protects the person who chooses to get it, but is not necessarily a means of protectingothers from getting the virus. Since the vaccine does not necessarily keep someone from spreading COVID-19 to others, it is a means of self-protection, making it a matter of personal choice.
Government Vaccine Mandates
Although there is legal precedent for government-mandated vaccines in certain limited situations, underlying the question of whether the government can mandate vaccines is a worldview question — what is the extent of the government’s authority over the individual, and why? If there is nothing higher than earthly authority, whether that authority be top-down government rule or the will of the people who are represented by their elected officials, then earthly authority becomes ultimate. But if, on the other hand, government is a steward of God-given authority, as Romans 13 teaches, then it follows that that authority must have limits and those limits must be honored. Plato and other thinkers throughout history have argued that citizens essentially belong to the state, an idea that is subtly making its way into American culture today. But if we are called to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” then we owe our very selves, not to the governing authorities, as Plato thought, but to God. This does not mean that the state has no authority over us — to the contrary, Scripture calls us to submit to, honor, and pray for our authorities — but it does place limits on the extent of a government’s rightful authority.
If the government does not have legitimate claim upon our very persons, then the government cannot require that we put something into our bodies. Religious freedom is one very good reason for this, but it extends further — as Glenn Sunshine has pointed out, the logical implication of the separation of church and state is that there are other spheres that the government cannot legitimately lay claim on. Because the state’s authority is not ultimate, then there are areas of life that the government has no right to encroach upon. The deeply personal decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine is one of those areas.
What about employers?
Many of the vaccine mandates that are currently popping up come not from the state, but from employers. A growing list of Minnesota employers are requiring or considering requiring vaccination, and just this week the Saint Paul school board announced that they are considering vaccine mandates for their nearly 7,000 teachers and support staff, despite the fact that nearly 90% of Minnesota’s educators are already vaccinated.
Religious objections to vaccines have been around almost as long as vaccines have. Over the past couple of centuries, people from a wide array of religious backgrounds have objected to some or all vaccines for a variety of reasons. Pursuant to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, employers are prohibited from religious discrimination and employees are allowed to request an exemption from an employer’s directive if it would violate a sincerely held religious belief. Employers are required by law to honor those requests unless if doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer. First Liberty Institute offers some helpful guidance for people who are objecting to employer-mandated vaccinations for religious or conscience-based reasons.
Strong religious freedom protections are elemental to American society. COVID-19 vaccine mandates by private employers will most certainly impact that freedom, since many people have sincere conscience-based objections to the COVID-19 vaccination at this point in time, particularly based on the use of fetal cell lines at various stages of vaccine development. Employees with sincerely held religious beliefs and deep convictions about the vaccine are now illegally forced to “prove up” beliefs in reasoning their objections in hopes of obtaining “religious exemption” to the mandate. That private employers are not only challenging employees’ beliefs, but even firing employees over holding such beliefs should be concerning to everyone. Individuals must be able to make their own medical decisions without undue interference from their employers.
Should Christians Get Vaccinated?
Although there are many on both sides who insist that this is a simple issue, it truly is not. Wrestling through the fact that life-saving medical advancements are truly a blessing, and that at the same time, throughout history medical advancements have been coupled with tough ethical concerns is not an easy thing to do. But what’s clear is that when people have sincere and deeply-held objections to the very personal decision of getting vaccinated, employers should respect their decisions. That means not mandating vaccinations, or turning unvaccinated employees into second-class citizens. Employers should respect the good faith of their employees. They can choose respectful ways to present their desire that all employees be vaccinated, but any attempts at coercion do not respect the freedom of conscience that all Americans share.
When it comes to the conscience-based decisions, such as vaccination, Christians may have good faith disagreement with one another on exactly where to draw certain lines, but we must each wrestle with exactly where to draw those lines and resolve not to cross them once they have been drawn.
It is not the role of the government to mandate that a person must put something into their body. Religious-based objections to vaccines have been around almost as long as vaccines have, and employers and the state alike must follow laws that require them to honor the religious freedom of those who have sincerely-held beliefs that inform them of their conviction not to get vaccinated. As Christians, we must keep in mind that behind the decision to vaccinate or not, there are many complex questions regarding ethics, personal health concerns, and how to best love our neighbors and respect human life and dignity, and there is room for good-faith disagreement among Christians. Part of honoring and loving fellow members of the body of Christ is learning to love one another when our consciences differ. This means choosing not to pass judgement on those who decide differently from us, as well as fighting for the freedom of conscience of all Americans to make their own healthcare decisions without coercion.
