Will you get the vaccine as soon as available to you?

Companies are (imo) going to respect exemptions for vaccines, legit and crazy, because they don’t want the lawsuits.

you said that in your personal opinion that “religious freedom is important”, so don’t backtrack here and claim you didn’t say that it’s perfectly fine to force everyone to take a vaccine other than some silly religious exemption.

I agree they should not be forced to. But not because I think it’s a good move for society. Because trampling on religious freedom is a bigger deal than a vaccine.

i don’t think that ANYONE should be forced to if you’re going to have some stupid religious exemption, so don’t shame me into it.

What are you even talking about? What are you even trying to argue right now?

disagree. in the name of “religion” the supreme court is forcing New York to allow synagogues and churches to congregate because the hasidic jews and catholics sued. ACB broke the tie and is ruled in favor of “religion”. so to hell with spreading this virus, religious folk need to hold super spreader events in the name of religion. this is complete bullshit.

you think there should be a religious exemption. i don’t. you can’t harm society in the name of religious freedom and if hordes of people decide not to take the vaccine in the name of religion that harms the rest of society and continues the spread of the virus. so no, just because there is pig or whatever in the vaccine, i don’t think that jews should be exempt, and i’m a jew.

So you’re fine with possibly harming society because other people are allowed to?

i don’t like the hypocrisy. if it’s required that everyone take the vaccine, everyone should take the vaccine, other than if you have a medical reason not to. your flying spaghetti monster god is not a reason to avoid the vaccine, particularly when some of these people are also perfectly fine holding super spreader events in the name of religion that’s protected by “religious freedom” according to amy coney barret who voted in favor of them in the recent supreme court ruling. so these same people who are spreading the virus are going to avoid the vaccine and that’s okay with you? no!

I think there is an argument to be made that if what a religion demands is harmful to others, the public health takes precedence. I think vaccines have already been determined to not apply there, but IANAL.

I don’t agree with the Supreme Court ruling on church gatherings, because I believe that churches can still meet for services without breaking health and social distancing mandates, and by permitting these gatherings, the public is harmed.

then you should also be fine with anyone else deciding not to take the vaccine for any reason they choose. if not enough people get the vaccine, we don’t get herd immunity. that includes religious people. that is harmful to others for perfectly healthy people not to get the vaccine and continue to spread it.

Don’t tell me what I should be fine with.

you can be fine with whatever you want, but i think giving a pass to religious reasons as being solid while shaming others for not getting the vaccine if they aren’t religious is a controversial stance to take.

Do I get some kind of badge for starting a thread with over 150 replies, or is there a quality of reply standard for badge purposes?

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That’s not quite what the Supreme Court said. They said if Cuomo is going to allow retail outlets that have higher capacities than the churches/synagogues/mosques do to remain open for people coming in, he can’t shut down religious venues exclusively. He’s welcome to shut it all down if that’s what he wants to do.

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An Orthodox Jew told me it doesn’t matter if the drug has pig gelatin in the capsule, because medicine isn’t food. fwiw.

I’m not going to shame you into getting the vaccine, but I’m going to suggest you wait until you hear how bad it is for your friends and family. My understanding is that most people just get a sore arm. I’m personally more worried about side effects from the shingle vaccine.

I dunno, did you?

By the time most of us are eligible to get it, millions of people will have already received it. I’m guessing we will have heard all about the side effects by then.

I won’t be waiting to hear about whether it’s pleasant or not if for some reason I’m offered it before side effects info is widely known; that’s irrelevant to my decision to get the vaccine.

My mom had a bad experience with a flu shot years ago, but you better believe I am gonna pester her to get the COVID shot!!! :woman_white_haired:

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Most religious exemptions are the result of legislative actions, not constitutional protections. In the 1990 Supreme Court case Employment Division v. Smith the majority opinion, written by noted anti-religion liberal Antonin Scalia, noted that interpreting the First Amendment as requiring religious exemptions to all laws would devolve into “a system in which each conscience is a law unto itself”. The opinion asserted that broad laws that do not specifically target religious activity, and do not impinge on other rights, do not run afoul of First Amendment protections. It explicitly referred to compulsory vaccinations as an example of a situation where First Amendment protections do not apply.

In response a few years later Congress passed a law mandating the old “strict” constitutional interpretation of the First Amendment. (There must be a compelling state interest in the law, and it must use the least restrictive means towards that end.) Ironically you can thank Democrats for introducing that law – specifically Representative Chuck Schumer and Senator Ted Kennedy. That (along with later state laws along the same lines) is why there are religious exemptions for pretty much everything.

(Of course most of the COVID-related restrictions on religious activity would fail under any interpretation of the First Amendment. Whoever put those together should be fired just for wasting the taxpayer money used defending those restrictions.)

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That easy-click red font button is sorely needed.

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