Pastor Robert Jeffress participates within the Celebrate Freedom Rally with then-President Donald Trump on July 1, 2017. Olivier Douliery-Pool through Getty Images

A preacher at a Texas megachurch is refusing to supply his congregation religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

He informed the Associated Press that there is no “credible religious argument” for turning down a shot.

Religious exemption letters have gotten extra broadly used as a “loophole” to keep away from vaccine mandates, the AP mentioned.

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As Republican lawmakers rage against President Joe Biden’s sweeping vaccine mandates, the Associated Press reported that religious exemptions have gotten extra broadly used as a “loophole” to keep away from getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

But a Trump-loving preacher at a Texas megachurch has decreed that there is “no credible religious argument” for turning down a shot, the Associated Press mentioned.

The Rev. Robert Jeffress, a pastor on the 12,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, informed the information company that he and his employees are neither “offering” exemption letters nor “encouraging” members of their congregation to hunt out religious exemptions from coronavirus vaccine mandates.

“Christians who are troubled by the use of a fetal cell line for the testing of the vaccines would also have to abstain from the use of Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Ibuprofen, and other products that used the same cell line if they are sincere in their objection,” mentioned Jeffress in an electronic mail.

Jeffress, who as soon as instructed that he would vote for former President Donald Trump over any person who embodies the teachings of Jesus, is certainly one of many religious leaders who’ve lately opposed using religious exemption letters.

The AP reported that leaders of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America mentioned Thursday that, other than medical causes, “there is no exemption in the Orthodox Church for Her faithful from any vaccination for religious reasons.”

Similarly, the information company reported that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York have additionally mentioned that they don’t seem to be in assist of exemption letters, in line with the AP.

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But not all church buildings share the identical view. The AP mentioned that some Catholic bishops, together with these at The Colorado Catholic Conference, have made it simpler to object to the vaccine on religious grounds by posting on-line templates for a letter that clergymen can signal.

One pastor in Tulsa has even mentioned that he’ll signal a religious exemption letter if folks donate to his church, The Washington Post reported.

According to a senior fellow for religious freedom on the Freedom Forum in Washington, religious exemptions are more likely to be on the middle of fierce authorized battles within the coming months.

“As vaccine mandates continue to expand in schools and workplaces, there is bound to be more litigation on the issue of religious exemptions – especially in cases where no exemptions (except medical) are allowed,” mentioned Charles Haynes in an electronic mail to The Washington Post.

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