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An Evaluation of Religious Exemptions from COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements

Nathan Chapman, and I wrote an assessment of religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination requirements. These exemptions are not legal. Instead, the question we take up is whether certain Protestant churches–the ones in the magisterial Reformation traditions (e.g., Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians)–should endorse religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine requirements. There are three main arguments for religious exemptions. The moral argument that one should receive the vaccine is complicit in the abortion of a child, the conscience argument the state shouldn’t override a Christian’s conscience and the risk argument Christians that have religious concerns regarding the safety of vaccines can refuse to accept them. All three arguments are ineffective and the conclusion is that these churches should not support religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccinations.

The analysis can be found in Mere Orthodoxy which is a Protestant online and paper journal, and Canopy Forum hosted by the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion.