Religious Liberty
"Religious Liberty" is the ability for one to practice their religious convictions without the interference of government at any level. The most brazen attack on religious liberty started with less than a handful of states which refused to grant a religious exemption to their vaccine mandate. In 2015, California, the most populous state in the nation, signed into law Sb 277, a bill which eliminated personal and religious belief exemptions joining Mississippi, West Virginia, Maine, Connecticut, and New York in this denial of exemptions.
With the advent of COVID-19 came a litany of mandates regarding the COVID-19 "vaccine." Fortunately, a religious exemption was allowed for those opposed to the vaccine. However, ironically and unbelievably, many churches refused to grant a letter of exemption to their members who sought a religious exemption. i cannot think of another time in history when the government allowed a religious exemption and the church denied it.
My guess is that many churches denied the exemption because they are so wedded to the monies the state provides that they are too weak and inebriated with government funds that they dare not jeopardize their government cash flow - whether it be tax exempt status or funds related to reimbursement for medical care at church run hospitals or other forms of government assistance. Consequently, the church has taken on the nature of the state rather than remain a purely religious institution. Therefore, religious exemptions should not require ANY documentation from the church. Instead, those with a religious objection to government mandates should simply be allowed to exercise their sincerely heal religious belief without proof from any religious body.
As a Constitutional Republic, the protection of the individual is paramount. Government has overstepped its power and is abusing it by mandating that its citizen take a foreign substance into their body, and to do so with a substance without long-tern studies to justiffwithout ANY liability for adverse reactions or defective product!!! Such medical tyranny is anathema to the Constitution. Therefore, it is not the role of government to demand that a church teach against every single religious belief a person may have. General principles should suffice, not explicit teachings.