To start, I would never condone submitting religious exemption on false pretenses. It is good to know how you will be interrogated about your faith, as to be able to keep your calm. To know their tactics is to know the reasoning behind their innocuously worded questions. With that being said, let's examine this real recording of a Doctor who has submitted his religious exemption to his employer and was approved. There is two combined calls. The first, a preliminary interview. The company then had an "exemption committee" meet to discuss the decision, followed by the second call. I found the summary and tactics of questioning to be very similar to this coast guard draft memo to chaplains. Religious exemption material that I have seen copy pasta on social media like telegram could fall trap to this questioning and honestly some of it may be a honeypot to get people to use it knowing it will be dismissed.
Some questions asked and statements made
- What religion are you?
- Have you ever had any other vaccines ?
- HR: I did see you cited some scripture in your request, so I know you are tieing it back to specific religious beliefs.
- How long have you been a practicing Christian?
- Have you sought any guidance from your religious leaders when it comes to the vaccine?
- if we were to need supporting documentation, would your religious leader be willing to provide that, like a note to confirm this? 7... There were more/ other questions but I did not transcribe them. In the 2nd call the doctor is told his exemption is approved, but they again began to question his fath. They could have been doing this to check for consistency in answers given the first time and were additionally designed to try and dismiss the exemption on other pretenses.
Doctor asks if both "vaccinated" and "unvaccinated" employees are required to be tested.
- HR says it would apply to "unvaccinated" employees
- Doctor states the vaccinated can still acquire and transmit the virus also
- HR says "yes, that is a true statement and honestly Dr. "blank" I can see all of this evolving and changing but this is the decision and direction we are going at the moment ... basically there will be more to come as OSHA rolls out whatever their mandate is ... if the state of Oregon makes any other changes to it ... we'll have to keep up with it and roll with it
Let us dissect these questions and begin writing their true intention behind them. We can even begin to brain-storm fool-proof suggested answers.
What religion are you?
This may be a simple primer question and could be double checked for consistency of truth after 2nd interview.
Have you ever had any other vaccines ?
Here they are trying to get you to specifically admit you take other vaccines / pharmaceuticals. They want you to exclaim that these therapeutics aren't vaccines. Ignore that. keep it purely religious.
Let's crowd source the rest.
Q: What religion are you?
A: Does this question imply different religions will be treated in different manners?
That would mean protections for equality w/r/t religious practices are not being observed, creating a hostile work environment.
I feel threatened and afraid, and will not be answering any further questions.
Please provide any additional questions in writing to my lawyer.
The Inquisition.
Church of coof vs. Heretical non hand sanitizer users
Use this language:
As the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Guidance on the protection of sincere religious beliefs states, it does not matter whether one’s sincere religious belief happens to correspond to that of any denomination or that it might even contradict the teaching of one’s denomination. What matters is that one has a sincere religious belief, which I do, concerning the immorality of recourse to abortion-derived vaccines. To quote the EEOC’s Guidance document in the Code of Federal Regulations:
"The fact that no religious group espouses such beliefs or the fact that the religious group to which the individual professes to belong may not accept such belief will not determine whether the belief is a religious belief of the employee or prospective employee…."
Also, I am aware that the United States Supreme Court has held that “[W]e reject the notion that to claim the protection of the Free Exercise Clause, one must be responding to the commands of a particular religious organization.” Frazee v. Illinois Dep’t of Emp. Sec., 489 U.S. 829, 834, 109 S. Ct. 1514, 1517–18, 103 L. Ed. 2d 914 (1989)(emphasis added). In other words, I do not have to show that any particular religion positively forbids me to take a COVID-19 vaccine. My personal religious belief forbids me.