Application for Religious/Secular Exemption from Mask Vaccine & testing Mandates

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     This article was started by Dave Leach R-IA Bible Lover-musician-grandpa (talk) 02:25, 1 October 2021 (UTC)
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(These arguments for a religious exemption are longer than most, but they make strong points I have never seen – not just to justify an exemption for the applicant but for everyone else too; and not just for Christians but for everyone who values Truth. Legal arguments included.)

When your employer or school requires a mask or vaccine, and asks why you want an exemption, tell them this:

Overview

Section One of this Application explains (1) my reverence for Truth and evidence, (2) the Bible’s emphasis on Truth and evidence, (3) Bible heroes who resisted health laws not based on reality, (4) why mask and vaccine mandates which cannot rationally claim support from evidence must be classified as “religious”, and are presented as false gods, and (5) what the Bible says about bowing down to false gods, and the importance of openly, decisively disclaiming them. Section One presents legal analysis of the First Amendment prohibition of “establishment of religion”, as well as theological analysis.

Section Two of this Application reviews medical research that shows (1) masks do not slow covid spread with any “statistical significance”, (2) masks cause serious medical and emotional problems, most tragically in children, (3) vaccines cause more deaths than covid, and (4) government blockage of proven covid cures points to some other government purpose than reducing covid.

(Section One also incorporates arguments common in other Applications for Religious Exemption: vaccines are developed from a murdered baby, and the Bible calls us to treat our bodies as the Temple of God.)

Introduction

Bible quotes in Section One of this Application support my reverence for Truth and evidence. These are widely understood as pillars of “secular” America, but their plagiarism into American society without honest attribution does not undermine their deeply religious nature which is unique to the Bible among the world’s religions, and central to Judeo-Christianity.

This application does not object to wearing a mask ever, anywhere, but to a mandate justified not by scientific evidence or any search for Truth (as Section Two establishes) but by considerable fervor of a religious character (as Section One explains).

Mandates are revered like false gods. This application objects to a mandate sustained not by evidence, but by censorship of evidence that mask-wearing not only fails to achieve any “statistically significant” (documentable) reduction of covid, but causes widespread measurable medical harm to wearers, not to mention social, political, and economic harm (which will not be detailed in this Application because it is common knowledge).

The fervor of support for this disruptive mandate, not explainable by any evidence, can only be explained in religious terms. Masks, along with vaccines, are made into idols. Reverence for them is enforced by social pressure as judgmental as reactions to blasphemy. They are made the icons and rituals of government-established religion.

“Blind faith” is what moves humans to censor, or otherwise destroy, any challenge to one’s assumptions. A few Christians ignorantly think the “faith” promoted in the Bible is blind, but the Bible is full of evidence, and challenges humans to test it, and then get in step with reality. But “blind faith” is the faith of other religions which offer no documentable miracles, no fulfilled prophecies, nor any ability to survive scientific scrutiny of those claims which are testable by humans.

The claim of high moral authority, combined with a claim of a strong basis in evidence which is only sustained by censoring opposing evidence since it has zero evidence, identifies government and employer vaccine and mask mandates as the icons and rituals of false gods supported by blind faith.

Blind Faith in idols is mocked by God in several passages. For example:

Isaiah 44:  (CEV) 12  A metalworker shapes an idol by using a hammer and heat from the fire. In his powerful hand he holds a hammer, as he pounds the metal into the proper shape. But he gets hungry and thirsty and loses his strength. 13  Some woodcarver measures a piece of wood, then draws an outline. The idol is carefully carved with each detail exact. At last it looks like a person and is placed in a temple. 14  Either cedar, cypress, oak, or any tree from the forest may be chosen. Or even a pine tree planted by the woodcarver and watered by the rain. 15  Some of the wood is used to make a fire for heating or for cooking. One piece is made into an idol, then the woodcarver bows down and worships it. 16  He enjoys the warm fire and the meat that was roasted over the burning coals. 17  Afterwards, he bows down to worship the wooden idol. “Protect me!” he says. “You are my god.”18  Those who worship idols are stupid and blind! 19  They don't have enough sense to say to themselves, “I made a fire with half of the wood and cooked my bread and meat on it. Then I made something worthless with the other half. Why worship a block of wood?” 20  How can anyone be stupid enough to trust something that can be burned to ashes? No one can save themselves like that. Don't they realize that the idols they hold in their hands are not really gods? 

Jeremiah 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.  4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. 

God contrasts how He has carried us from our birth, with how idols can’t even carry themselves and must be carried, which does nothing for their worshippers except make them tired.

Isaiah 46:1 (BBE) The Lord says, "Bel has fallen to the ground. Nebo is kneeling before me. "Men put those idols on the backs of animals. They are only heavy burdens that must be carried. They do nothing but make people tired. ...3  "Family of Jacob, listen to me! You who are left from the family of Israel, listen! I have carried you since you left your mother's womb. I carried you when you were born, 4  and I will still be carrying you when you are old. Your hair will turn gray, and I will still carry you. I made you, and I will carry you to safety. ...6  Some people are rich with gold and silver. Gold falls from their purses, and they weigh their silver on scales. They pay an artist to make a false god from wood. Then they bow down and worship that false god. 7  They put their false god on their shoulders and carry it. That false god is useless; people have to carry it! People set the statue on the ground, and it cannot move. That false god never walks away from its place. People can yell at it, but it will not answer. That false god is only a statue; it cannot save people from their troubles. 8  Sinners, change your heart and mind. Think about this again. Remember it and be strong. 9  Remember what happened long ago. [The miracles that prove my power, and what they accomplished that proves my love.] Remember, I am God and there is no other God. There is no other like me.

Blind faith in a lie won’t make it true. Government pressure on citizens to physically, visibly, and perpetually participate in a man-made charade imbued with elevated moral authority fulfills every element of a “government-established religion” that I can think of. It is as stupid as our ancestors were, bowing down to carved trees.

Not every stupid thing governent does qualifies as establishing religion. Evolution instruction rulings came close, in which laws were struck down requiring opposing evidence to be taught, while those citing the opposing evidence are ridiculed and dismissed as putting religion above “science”.

“Climate Change” political movements come close, in which those citing the opposing evidence are not heard, and are labeled “anti-science”.

They do not come as close as mask and vaccine mandates which require citizens to physically, VISIBLY, PERPETUALLY participate in the charade that these icons and rituals will save us, enabling the forces of social ostracization to see at a glance who to target.

Not the only example of government treatment of its covid policies in a religious manner is when the Governor of New York literally delivered a covid sermon 9/26/2021 in which she said those who resist vaccines are “not listening to God”, and she wants her “apostles” to go out and spread the message of being safe.

“Yes, I know you (in this audience) are vaccinated. You’re the smart ones. But you know there are people out there who aren’t listening to God. What God wants. You know this. You know who they are. I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it. Say ‘we owe this to each other. We love each other. Jesus taught us to love one another. How do you show that love? Do you care enough about each other to say ‘Please get that vaccine because I love you, I want you to live. I want our kids to be safe when they go to their schools. I want you to be safe when you go to your doctor’s office and are treated by somebody. You don’t want to get the virus from them.” Youtube

This application is secular and religious

It is secular in the sense that it seeks an exemption from worshiping a government religion which has been established in violation of the First Amendment. It uses secular arguments useful in American courts. The ACLU is regarded as secular yet initiates cases on this basis perpetually.

They are religious in the sense that these “secular” values came to American life from the Bible, are not honored in other religions uninfluenced by the Bible, and do not lose their imperitives upon the behavior of Christians by having been adopted in the “secular” world. This application is religious also in that the Bible is quoted estensively here to prove that not only is Truth a pillar of Judeo-Christianity in general, but there are examples in the Bible of Bible heroes specifically applying their reverence for Truth to resisting government mandates that are harmful to health.

Secular Features of this Application

This application is secular in the sense that this application incorporates a reverence for truth, facts, evidence, science – which are widely assumed to be entirely secular values. They are the pillars of American life, economics, science, politics, and justice.

These values are thought to be pillars of secular America, not because they are not deeply religious, but only because they are plagiarized from the Bible without honest attribution.

The ACLU, a quintessentially “secular” legal institution, explains below the four times the Supreme Court ruled that a state law favored a religion. The mandates from which I apply for an exemption are not laws, directly, but are encouraged by, if not required by, and protected by a mixture of laws, governors’ emergency rulings, rules of bureaucracies, and the “guidance” of government bodies which somehow acquire mandatory powers. The laws holding together this web of powers which, combined, acquire the force of law, merits the same courtroom scrutiny as laws whose effects are direct and honest. The web of powers they enable lays burdens upon me which can only be explained as religious, and compel me to bow down or lose (my job/education/right to travel). These “secular” legal arguments are part of the basis of my application.

Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968) said a state couldn’t outlaw the teaching of evolution; that law had no “secular purpose” but only a religious purpose. Stone v.Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980) said law couldn’t require every school to post the 10 Commandments in every school room, because the principal purpose of the law was ‘‘plainly religious.’’ Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) ruled against a “minute of silence” during which school children might, at their option, pray. (Unfortunately, according to the ACLU article, “The statute’s principal sponsor had said that the bill’s only purpose was religious, and no evidence to the contrary had been offered by the state.” v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987) shot down a law that a teacher teaching evolution must give equal attention to “creation science”, which the Court considered “a particular religious doctrine”.

If a woman has a “fundamental right” to murder a baby growing inside her, [as Roe ruled in 1973; Hellerstedt, 2016, leaves its status unclear] I must have a fundamental right to refuse threats to my health such as masks and vaccines, whose alleged harm to others has no basis in fact, as Section Two establishes. Courts review restrictions of “fundamental rights” by a standard they call “strict scrutiny”. It says any legally enforceable restriction of my fundamental rights must have a “legitimate secular government purpose” and must achieve that purpose by “the least restrictive means possible”.

The restriction must effectively achieve its purpose. It is not enough to merely allege that the “government purpose” is legitimate, is secular, is the least restrictive means possible to achieve its purpose, and is effective. All these must be proved in court under the scrutiny of any opposing expert testimony.

This application shows that mask and vaccine mandates:

Mandates Lack a Legitimate Government Purpose.

Reducing covid would be a legitimate government purpose, and that is its stated purpose, but a number of actions deliberately taken by government that actually make covid worse rule that out as its purpose, beginning with (1) housing covid patients in nursing homes(!), (2) blocking proven early treatment protocols, not based on a fair assessment of evidence, but with a mixture of censorship and wilful ignorance, and (3) grossly inflating covid death statistics which should be legally recognizable as a concession that the true figures cannot justify its mandates. (See Section Two.) Imposition of government religion – requiring citizens to bow down to and live by government mythology, is not a legitimate government purpose in America.

Mandates Are Not Secular.

These mandates have no basis in science, facts, evidence, etc., (see Section Two), yet are imbued with moral authority greater than that enjoyed by many churches. Therefore they do not fit the “secular” category claimed for them. The only category they fit is “religious”.

Mandates Are Not the least restrictive means...

...to achieve their purpose. Proven early treatment protocols are a zero restrictive means to control covid, yet government steps in to block those remedies, not with a fair assessment of evidence, but with a mixture of censorship and willful ignorance. “Herd immunity”, which has already been achieved by pre-covid standards, should be accepted as justifying no further government or employer intervention. (See Section Two.)

Mandates Are Not Effective.

Well, not in reducing covid. They are extremely effective in furthering government-established religion. (See Section Two.)

Mandates Are not proved.

(See Section Two.)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.... - The First Amendment

Religious Features of this Application

Exodus 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me. ...5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, [I tolerate no rivals]... - The First Commandment

My appeal is jointly to the First Amendment and the First Commandment. I must not bow down to any degree, in any sense, to the Mask/Vaccine idols enabled by government. My stand for Truth whatever the cost, and opposition to fraud, are deeply religious values unique to the Bible and not honored in other religions, philosophies, or political systems uninfluenced by the Bible. My “free exercise of religion” is to not only stand for Truth, but also to oppose the false religion being imposed on me and on millions of others.

The second section of this application for a religious exemption from mask wearing summarizes some of the peer-reviewed evidence that the officially alleged benefits of mask wearing to protect against covid are not “statistically significant”, while the harm of wearing masks, even for short periods, is heavily documented. The official claims are not true, and are not even sincere misunderstandings, but are deliberate fraud, supported by ruthless censorship, mandates, laws, and a few court rulings which were not based on the interaction of expert witnesses. The depth of the frenzy of support for this fraud goes beyond mere “politics” or financial interest. Its fervor is at a religious level, that of a false religion. A very dark, false religion. A religious, bitter opposition to God-given freedom.

A mask in a spiritually neutral context is spiritually harmless, just as meat or a carved tree is spiritually harmless. But when either is made an idol, or a sacrifice to idols, any unseared conscience requires clear dissassociation with it.

1 Corinthians 8:8  But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 9  But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. 10  For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; 11  And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12  But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

The motivation of conscience, and of the Bible, to disassociate from idolatry not just privately but openly, is not selfish. It is not concern only for myself. It is concern for our entire nation. Hundreds of millions have placed their faith in this anti-science scam under pressure that is very mild by historical standards. Merely losing your job is a mild penalty compared with being tortured to death which has been the majority penalty of tyrants for most nations during most centuries. How many more will gladly take the Mark of the Beast prophesied in Revelation 13-16, when the alternative is being beheaded?

Real ID and E-verify, with their biometric tools, already meet every detail of the Mark of the Beast prophesied in Revelation 13 and 14, except for the significance of “666” and the painful ulcers that everyone who accepts the “mark” will get. 

(Revelation 16:2.) Republican Christian conservatives led the march towards these monstrosities in the name of driving out immigrants (which Matthew 25:43 warns is another ticket to Hell). If God’s penalty is Hell for taking the Mark to escape the terror of beheading, will there be no penalty for Christians who, under no shadow of terror, vote to fast-track Mark of the Beast technology? And now Democrats lead our nation in adding, to The Beast’s future arsenal, the capacity to cause ulcers through an unproved vaccine trusted by billions.

More Profound than Doctrines and Denominations

There are religious convictions more profound than agreement with a pastor, or the doctrines of a denomination, or if any church agrees with you, which do not even require church membership to have.

Federal law about religious exemptions may be summarized: “...religion, according to the law and policy, includes not only traditional faiths, but also faiths that are new, uncommon, or informal, or have a small number of practitioners, and some that may seem illogical or even unreasonable to others. Religious beliefs also do not have to be theistic but can be non-theistic, strongly held moral or ethical beliefs. Beliefs based on social, political, or economic philosophies, as well as mere personal preferences, are not considered religious beliefs under federal law. [www.venable.com/insights/publications/2021/06/employers-guide-to-the-religious-exemption Venable.com]

This application, while not citing denominational or church support, leans heavily on the Bible, which 71% of Americans believe is the Word of God. (55% believe it is the infallible “Word of God”.) And yet the principles heralded here are widely recognized as secular, being embedded in the foundations of American Freedom and in the very concept of Justice which is the goal of America’s courts.

Truth is such a principle. It is a principle so precious that many throughout history have given their lives for it, just to affirm it, in the face of cruel censors determined to destroy whoever dares speak it. Giving your life for a principle is made a lot more sufferable by a religious faith that there is a life after death which rewards what we do here.

Yet some philosophers ask, with Pilate, “What is truth?” John 18:18.

Truth: statements corresponding to reality.

Science was impossible before the belief that reality is testable, that nature is governed by discoverable laws. and that objective claims about them may be documented as being “true”. The Bible supports this belief. Pagan cultures, lacking it, are science-challenged.

Proverbs 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

The Bible values Truth and models correction of fraud, even on the subject of physical health.

Daniel retched at the thought of eating the disgusting meats loved and mandated by the king, which were also forbidden by God, so he proposed a medical study to prove that turning vegan was healthier than that.

Nebuchadnezzar, like Biden/Fauci today, had his own idea about what is best for the common people, and imposed his opinion by force. Daniel, like myself and millions of others, was motivated by a mix of religious objection, concern for his health, and opposition to a law out of touch with reality. (The fact that he expected his test to demonstrate better health shows he was not concerned only with violation of God’s laws, but that he presumed God’s purpose for prohibiting “unclean” meats was better health.) The “prince of the eunichs”, like businesses and hospitals today, was forced by the fear of severe penalties to serve as Health Policeman over his clients.

The medical study showed – but wait, I don’t want to give away the ending. Read it in Daniel 1.

Similarly, our government loves masks and vaccines which many renowned doctors put on a health scale somewhere near eating live monkey brains. I, like Daniel, say the matter should be decided on the basis of evidence. Will the judges of this Application be as open to evidence as the Prince of the Eunichs was?

The Pharisees wanted Jesus to wash his hands before meals. Jesus said that was a law of men, not of God, and it is a fact that people don’t get sick from not washing their hands before meals. (Nor do American restaurants encourage that today.) Bible translations call those rules “traditions”, but commentators agree they had the force of law, violation of which was punished, as our hygiene laws today are punished.

That wasn’t the end of Jesus’ rebellion. Jesus followed that up by reasoning that the Pharisees’ habit of displacing God’s laws with their own undermines any legitimate authority they have to enact laws of their own! So after He did and said that, the Pharisees – but wait, I don’t want to give away the ending. Read it in Mark 7:1-23.

Similarly, our government displaces God’s laws with Laws from Hell: protecting baby butchery with tremendous legal, police, and financial resources, and then requiring injection of vaccines developed from a butchered baby.

Daniel requested an exemption based on health. (He didn’t specify anything about violating God’s prohibition of eating unclean meats – in fact, the Bible doesn’t explicitly say Nebuchadnezzar’s meats were unclean; I only presume they were, to account for why Daniel objected.) Jesus simply refused to obey a health law which He regarded as useless and therefore as unnecessarily burdensome.

These sound like “secular” reasons, and they are reasons that should guide all humans. They are also Bible reasons.

In Daniel 3, King Neb had a stupid mandate for everyone, and threatened God’s men: “Do you think any god can save you from me?” God’s men answered, “I know God can. Whether or not He will, I feel a lot safer trusting God to save me from both you and covid, than trusting your mandate to save anyone from either one.” Or something like that.

For their rebellion, the men were thrown into a furnace made seven times hotter just for them; so hot that it killed the king’s most valiant warriors whom the king ordered to throw in God’s men. Did God save them from that?! – but wait, I don’t want to give away the ending. Read it in Daniel 3.

Mask mandates, like vaccine mandates, are obviously not for believers in the government-established religion (a mandate based on zero science yet imbued with moral as well as legal authority is religious) who religiously comply without a mandate, and happily add their own social pressure to the pressure of any mandate, but for “unbelievers”.

Similarly, in Daniel 6, the mandate to ask nothing of any man or god except the emperor Darius, did not target the millions who already believed Darius was some kind of god, but believers in God. Daniel could have avoided being thrown to the lions by simply closing his window shades so peeping toms couldn’t look in and watch him still praying to God. But...

Daniel 6:10  Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

Daniel violated the mandate. Publicly or at least semi-publicly. He was thrown to the lions. But God’s angel – but wait, I don’t want to give away the ending. Read it in Daniel 6.

Still today, the safest course, despite all who would destroy you for taking it, is to honor God. To uphold Truth insofar as we can document it. To openly, unapologetically refuse to respect lies, nonsense, and false religion. God is real. God can save, and will always make it possible for you to do His will, which will always be the most fulfilling life you could ever imagine. Trust Him.

Whether or not this Application is accepted, accept God.