Shot in the Dark

In James chapter 4, we are encouraged to trust the Lord with our very lives and the decisions that we make. We can read these words:
13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

I would submit the converse is true: if we know not to do bad or evil things and insist on doing them - in direct rebellion to God - that is sin, as well. We know this, but in our flesh, we make decisions to reject the direction of the Holy Spirit.  There is great power available to us in conviction and satisfaction that comes with a conscience that is developed by God's Word and His Spirit.  We grow in the Lord as we train that conscience, which gives us the capability of knowing right from wrong, in order to operate in line with God's truth.

+++++

Romans chapter 14 deals with the issue of conscience - a noted commentator used a verse from that chapter, to which I'll refer later, but first, consider the words of Paul earlier in the chapter:
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

Inara Ramazanova is a student at Oakland University, which is located in Michigan. Last year, her parents, who immigrated to America from Russia 13 years ago, chose to reject the COVID-19 vaccine for her due to their religious beliefs, according to a CBN.com article.  The university required an explanation before granting her an exemption. 

The CBN account says:

The student then began to research how to best create a written request, which led her to join a private Facebook group about religious accommodations for COVID vaccines.

OU granted Ramazanova her accommodation which secured her spot in on-campus housing for the coming semester.

She shared her request and her granted exemption with the Facebook group, thinking it could benefit others going through a similar situation.

After the university found out what Ramazanova had done, she was told to either confess to "collusion or conspiracy" or attend a hearing before the University Conduct Committee, according to First Liberty.

She was no longer allowed to participate in a housing scholarship and moved back home. Justin Butterfield, Deputy General Counsel at First Liberty Institute, said: "Punishing a student for exercising their free speech is not only illegal, it's outrageous. Kicking them out of their housing and damaging their future pursuits is punitive and vindictive," adding, "The university violated Inara's Constitutional rights and the Fair Housing Act. They owe her an apology and a clean academic record."

Inara's story is a reminder of thousands across America who have desired to live out their faith and act on their religious convictions regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.  As David Closson of Family Research Council had written in an excellent piece on the topic of religious exemptions:

Christians believe that willfully acting against one's conscience is sinful. Romans 14:23 teaches that "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." This admonition seems relevant when the action involves something as personal as injecting a vaccine into one's body which, according to Scripture, is a "temple of the Lord" (1 Cor. 6:19). Believers are called to be stewards of their bodies, and this stewardship should be exercised in line with one's conscience.

He adds, "Because Christians believe it is sinful to do anything that goes against one's conscience and it is wrong to force anyone to do what they think is morally wrong, it is appropriate to respect and accommodate those who have legitimate, morally informed reasons for requesting an exemption."

But, with the COVID vaccine, that has not been a principle followed by a number of governmental leaders. Fortunately, the Supreme Court struck down the mandate for businesses of 100 or more employees to require vaccination or force them to test weekly.  But, the high court also allowed a mandate for health care workers at federal facilities.

The military has been notable for its vaccine requirement, with adverse consequences if a member will not, due to religious beliefs, refuse to receive the COVID injection.  One recent incident had to do with three cadets at the Air Force Academy who chose not to get the shot. Air Force Magazine reported:

...the U.S. Air Force Academy Board, made up of Academy leaders, decided during their standard review of the class of 2022 to let those Cadets graduate with a bachelor of science degree but not allow them to commission into the Air Force or Space Force, the Academy confirmed in a statement.

This article, written in late May, reported:

According to the Department of the Air Force’s most recent statistics, the department has separated 399 service members over their vaccine refusals. Thousands more have seen their requests for religious accommodations be denied, leaving them with limited options—get the shot, appeal to the Air Force surgeon general, or start the separation/retirement process. If their appeal is denied by the surgeon general, as more than 2,700 already have been, the service members have five days to start the vaccination process or face separation.

Other branches have similar records of expelling service members because of their refusal to get vaccinated due to religious objections. In an interview with Federal News Network just last week, Mike Berry, who is Senior Counsel for First Liberty, responded to a question about a class action lawsuit filed by members of the Air Force.  He said:

It would be everyone who is requested and been denied a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandates, specifically the COVID vaccine mandate. So that, right now that number is several thousand. I know, off the top of my head, the number in the Navy is somewhere near 4,100. 

The Army reports as of last week having received just under 4,500 religious exemption requests: only 11 have been granted, with just over 1,100 having been denied.  818 members have been separated.  The Navy? 38 accommodations, just over 1,200 separations.  Looks like the Air Force is at around 85 approvals out of almost 9,000 requests.

In March, the Supre

me Court ruled in a case involving members of the U.S. Navy. The SCOTUS Blog reported:

The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Pentagon the go-ahead to consider whether some members of the elite Navy SEALs are vaccinated against COVID-19 when making operational decisions. With three justices noting dissents, the court temporarily blocked an order by a federal trial court that U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said would commandeer “the Navy’s authority to decide which servicemembers should be deployed to execute some of the military’s most sensitive and dangerous missions.” The ruling came over the objection of a group of SEALs who oppose the Navy’s vaccination policy on religious grounds; the SEALs had argued that what the Navy really wants is “permission to engage in hostile tactics designed to coerce” the SEALs “into disregarding their religious beliefs.”

Days after that decision, according to Military.com: "The Navy suspended the discharges late on Tuesday of sailors who have refused to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate after a Texas judge ruled that a case involving vaccine-refusing Navy SEALs would apply to the entire Navy." But the legal fight continues - just this week, Liberty Counsel announced that it "...filed its brief at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of two service members in Navy SEAL 1 v. Austin who were granted a preliminary injunction for being denied religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate. The Department of Defense (DOD) appealed the injunction to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals."

There are certainly a number of moving parts and multiple cases regarding not only the military, but others who have requested exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines due to their deeply held religious beliefs.  Yet, just to use the military as an example, thousands have found their objections rejected. That is clearly a violation of religious freedom.  The point is that this great country was founded on freedom of religion - and when the free exercise of that freedom is being denied, that is problematic.  

That is what has been so problematic in this arena of forced vaccines: authorities have leveraged their power to elevate coercion over conscience.  It is concerning, and we should certainly be prayerful in the face of these trends.  The COVID crisis has certainly been an indicator of the willingness of authorities to present faulty or partial information in order to accomplish an end - and believers in Christ must reject a willingness to make decisions based on fear or inappropriate coercion.  

Because the propensity to use fear as a tool has proven to be effective.  Just watch: consider the warnings that have been given regarding monkeypox.  As the Intercessors for America website relates: "Bill Gates gave a warning in November 2021 during a Policy Exchange interview where he declared, “You say, Ok, what if a bioterrorist brought smallpox to ten airports? You know, how would the world respond to that? There’s naturally-caused epidemics and bioterrorism–caused epidemics that could be way worse than what we experienced today.” In the same breath Gates also insisted that the formation of a new billion-dollar Pandemic Task Force “at the WHO level,” would need to be created. Gate’s new book, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, is chock full of the disturbing details.  The IFA article muses:

Is it a coincidence that the WHO met to discuss plans to dominate the world’s health system a week after cases of monkeypox began to show up in newsfeeds? What are the chances that the World Economic Forum met the same week to discuss the future of the world’s health? Klaus Schwab declared to his globalist cohorts, “Let’s also be clear: the future is not just happening. The future is built by us, a powerful community–you here in this room. WE HAVE THE MEANS TO IMPOSE THIS STATE (of the future) ON THE WORLD.”

But a Convention of States Action/Trafalgar survey shows a lack of trust in health authorities to respond to future health crises.   A recent e-mail summary stated: "56 percent of American voters say they don’t trust that the Biden Administration and Dr. Fauci will handle the monkeypox outbreak properly," with 39.7 saying they do trust the Administration and the doctor to handle it properly.  But, I would caution that "outbreak" is at this point a strong term - but, the reporting on this seemingly new threat, which seems to be spreading in a significant way through sexual contact among homosexuals, can be used to manipulate people to bring about desired behavior.  Be careful: reject fear, remain clear-headed.