The difference between a religious exemption and a conscientious objection is wrapped in confusion. The powers-that-be seem to prefer the term “religious exemption” at least for the reason that the state exercises many controls over the tax-exempt entity and can more easily put pressure on such an entity than on the mind and heart of a committed individual.
The conscience ‘knows’ when something is or is not justified, especially after a diligent effort to discern. Government has had an unholy alliance with the power behind the pulpit for decades, threatening preachers, at least in their own minds, that to speak out against abortion, for example, was illegal and could lead to loss of tax exempt status. And, as an extra measure, government silenced the locked-down religious voices for months in 2020, without even an after-the-event peep.
So the state makes it a matter, not of conscience, but of whether or not some religious entity is aligned, as a matter of faith, with the issue in dispute by the individual. Simultaneously, churches and other religious entities conveniently play the game of providing exemptions, which they are powerless to do. All they can do, if inclined, is verify their own teachings, and witness or not to the laws of that faith.
Thus, each case is a one-off, keeping the pool of objections to government manageably small, and miserably weak.
Today’s LifeSiteNews reports the activity in NYS. There are 450,000 healthcare workers whose jobs are being threatened if they do not take the vax. Unless they act as a group they will cave one-by-one, with the strongest consciences suffering the most. Even the exemptions already awarded are being revoked, showing how powerless the individual really is. It explains much about the need to have formed labor unions at the turn of the last century.
If 450,000 (or some relatively large portion thereof) refuse the vax, the outcome might well be different. NYS cannot function healthcare-wise, missing even 100,000. But it takes courage to see the threat as an opportunity to be heard, and as a real tipping point. Will New Yorkers be the ones to stand up? They were the ones who ran into the burning buildings, weren’t they?
I’m praying for the voice in people’s hearts to be heard. And 9/11 is a good time to speak up. NYS is a good place to do so. Now. Here is the relevant article from LifeSiteNews: New York ends religious exemption for COVID vaccine mandate: 450,000 healthcare workers affected – LifeSite (lifesitenews.com)
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