Religious Exemptions from Vaccines Should Exist, But Be Rare

Federal law strikes an important balance between the rights of employers to take actions to keep their employees and customers safe from exposure to viruses, and the rights of employees to seek an exemption under workplace rules that would require them to violate their religious beliefs. That balance should not be disturbed. In an op-ed published in The New York Times earlier this week, former Pastor Curtis Chang argues that religious exemptions to employer vaccination requirements should never be permitted under Title VII -- the federal law that requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation to their employees' sincerely held religious beliefs or practices. Such accommodations should not exist, argues Chang, because "there is no actual religious basis for exemptions from vaccine mandates in any established stream of Christianity."