I work in a small healthcare office in Portland, OR and my religious exemption was approved by my boss on September 14th, 2021.
Nearly every state within the United States is required to uphold your religious exemption as your constitutional right (CA, ME, MS, NY, and WV do NOT offer religious exemptions). I am aware that corporations are coming down hard on religious exemptions and using fear tactics for compliance. The truth is that you are under no obligation to inform your employer of what your religious beliefs are, and it is entirely enough to submit a signed paper that says “getting vaccinated for covid-19 is against my religious beliefs.” End of story. You do not have to belong to a church or an organized religion or show proof of your affiliation in any way and your employer cannot require proof of attendance or references to validate your religious beliefs. They are yours and yours alone and philosophical, moral, and ethical beliefs that you live by ARE religious beliefs (in AR, CO, LA, MI, MN, ND, NM, OH, OK, OR, PA, TX, UT, WA, and WI–but NOT IL) and therefore worthy of exemption. If you live in Illinois you must pursue a religious exemption and not a philosophical exemption. There are several form letters already online about the vaccines using aborted fetal tissue if this applies to you and your belief system. If your employer tries to tell you that you are a threat to the health and safety of others they must prove it with a court order based on sworn testimony from a licensed medical doctor. If you are an employee in Oregon and your employer wants you to fill out the OHA Religious Exemption Form CROSS OUT exception and write exemption when you sign the document. If your employer denies your exemption ask them what their appeal process is. If your appeal gets denied, you have every right to file a lawsuit against your employer. These lawsuits are already happening and they will eventually reach the Supreme Court. Things are currently looking much darker in Canada where clinicians are on a gag order from their government and can’t talk freely about adverse vaccine reactions without fear of losing their license to practice.
A right that you don’t exercise is a right that is eventually lost. Please, do all you can, while you can. Our freedoms and our livelihood depend on it. Please use any and all of the content I have below to draft your own religious exemption letter. Spread it far and wide to anyone who may need it to help hold the line on medical freedom and bodily autonomy. May the Force be with you all, you courageous warriors of light.
[COVER LETTER/EMAIL OF INTENT]
September 1, 2021
Dear [EMPLOYER],
I’m writing in regards to your inquiry about my timeline for getting vaccinated by October 18th. Being mandated to receive a SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is in conflict with my sincerely held religious beliefs, which is why I am invoking my constitutional right to a religious exemption from Governor Brown’s mandate.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The term “religion” includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as strongly held moral beliefs. Further, ORS 433.416(3) is a current Oregon statute established in 1989 that states, “A worker shall not be required as a condition of work to be immunized under this section, unless such immunization is otherwise required by federal or state law, rule, or regulation.” According to the National Governor’s Association; “As state managers, governors are responsible for implementing state laws and overseeing the operation of the state executive branch.” Governors are not in a position nor do they have the power to create laws—that is the job of the legislative branch of government. Further, it is well established in common law that law cannot compel performance. Laws exist in America as a negative force to keep people from harming others, not to mandate, force, or compel people to do something under threat, duress, or coercion.
Governor Kate Brown’s continued emergency order notwithstanding has presently allowed her to mandate vaccination as a term of employment for healthcare workers. Whether or not these orders can be enforced and carried out is yet to be determined. However, given the current circumstances, I prefer to invoke my constitutional right to a religious exemption from mandatory vaccination. My signed religious exemption letter is attached for you to review and keep on file. Please let me know of any reason you may reject my exemption, which is required by law to be accommodated.
It has also come to my attention over the past week that other employees of [BUSINESS NAME] have been made aware of my vaccination status without my consent. I strongly encourage that the contents of this correspondence and any thereafter remain between you and I alone, as it is against the law to share private, confidential health information with any individual—employee, patient, or otherwise.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[SIGNED RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION LETTER]
September 1, 2021
[BUSINESS ADDRESS]
Dear [EMPLOYER NAME],
As an undergraduate at [UNIVERSITY] I received a minor degree in biological and healthcare ethics. One of the fundamental principals of healthcare ethics is the right of self-determination, also known as self-governance or bodily autonomy. Bodily autonomy ensures that we are treated like persons and not like things or objects. My most foundational moral belief is that we respect each other as moral agents, with the utmost reverence for personal autonomy, free from external constraints, manipulations, and forms of coercion. Simply, that we must respect the right of individuals to do with their own bodies as they see fit. I believe my right to my own bodily autonomy is a sacred birthright outside of the realm of control of my employer or my government. I believe that we must treat individuals as ends in themselves and never as a means to an end, even under the most brutal of circumstances and with the best of intentions.
The right to bodily autonomy has been a pillar of my [JOB DUTY] for my entire career. I have always educated my patients to the best of my ability and given them all of the information available to allow them to make the best decisions for themselves in regards to their health and their treatment options. I believe at the end of the day that every patient knows what is best for themselves and their right to consent to treatment is theirs and theirs alone- not mine or my governments’.
My personally held beliefs mimic that of Judge John P. Flaherty Jr., in his ruling of the McFall v. Shimp Supreme Court case of 1978, indicating that forcing someone to an intrusion of their own body “would defeat the sanctity of the individual and would impose a rule which would know no limits, and one could not imagine where the line would be drawn.” I sincerely believe that if we allow our local governments to violate our right to bodily autonomy now, with vaccine mandates, that it will set a precedent in the future for larger humanitarian atrocities—even things as incomprehensible as forced sterilization. History has already shown us what happens when we compromise on these universally accepted values and liberties. It is why the Nuremberg Code was created and has been globally accepted since 1947.
I further believe that the current worldwide fervor forcing the mandatory vaccination narrative parallels circumstances set forth in the chapter of Revelations in The Bible. Much of my confirmation into the Community United Methodist Church focused on what the end of days would look like and entail. It describes cataclysmic natural disasters, famine, poverty, and pestilence as well as a “mark of the beast,” which limits persons from being able to work and initiate commerce without it. “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark,” (Revelations 13:16-17). In Christianity the mark of the beast is known to be evil and satanic and my lifelong membership of the church leads me to believe that mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports fall within these guidelines set forth in Revelations. For this belief I also invoke my right to an exemption.
Since the inherent duties of my job cannot be performed from home and my position does not accommodate for similar exceptions without undue hardship to both myself and the business, I am requesting an exemption to the unlawful mandate, asking that I may perform my duties the same as I have for the last sixteen months. I will continue to wear my mask so long as the local mandates deem healthcare providers must, but not longer than, and continue the stringent sanitation protocols already laid out for [BUSINESS NAME] employees in our covid-19 protocols, including but not limited to: handwashing and sanitizing between patients, chiropractic table sanitation between patients, sanitizing high contact areas like iPads and door handles, and using the Jade Surgically Clean Air purification system in the treatment rooms which our clinic claimed “removes 99.998% of viruses from indoor air,” in an email sent out to our patients on August 25th, 2020.
My privacy and confidentiality shall be maintained and I shall be treated and held to the same standards of every other [BUSINESS NAME] employee, assuring that there will be no physical requirements or markers of shame for being unvaccinated henceforth, including but not limited to being the only practitioner in the clinic forced to wear a mask, even if local mandates dictate that vaccinated healthcare workers may proceed without masks. By asking for an exemption rather than an exception I guarantee that I will not be discriminated against in the workplace.
I am signing this document without waiver of my legal right to seek religious exemption and accommodation from any requirement that conflicts with my sincerely held religious belief, and without waiver of the right to seek legal redress from any wrongful denial of such exemption.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR TITLE/POSITION OF EMPLOYMENT]
