New York employers do not have to grant religious exemptions to the state’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, but the option to seek a religious exemption must be offered, a federal judge indicated Oct. 12. U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd issued…
Gov. Abbott’s COVID-19 vaccination ban tramples on my religious practice
Like me, many Christians in Texas live in a state of perpetual agitation over the actions of our governor, Greg Abbott, regarding sensible public health practices around the coronavirus pandemic. His latest action — an executive order “banning any entity in…
Enslaved by freedom
He stood up to address the House of Burgesses, the legislative body in Virginia, meeting to determine how to respond to British military intervention in the colony. Relationships between the colonists and the British had deteriorated over the past two…
Why I see COVID-19 vaccines as a sign of God’s grace
I used to tell the Hardin-Simmons University students in my freshman biology class that scientific knowledge is a gift from God, but we have to do the hard work of discovering it and learning how to use it. For example,…
Politicians and pastors opposing vaccine mandates are hypocritical, Griffen says in webinar
Politicians and religious leaders opposed to President Biden’s new COVID-19 vaccine mandates are concerned not with protecting the personal freedoms of Americans but with expanding control through political and social discord, Arkansas judge and Baptist pastor Wendell Griffen said in…
Looking for a religious exemption to a COVID vaccine mandate? Most denominations won’t help you
Unless you’re a member of a Dutch Reformed church or a Christian Science church, making a claim for a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine as a Christian is going to be hard to prove. According to research by Vanderbilt…
Gallup documents a 34-point gap between Republicans and Democrats on trusting science
A new Gallup survey documents a significant decline in the trust of science among Republicans over the past four decades, a downward trend matched by religious conservatives’ embrace of creationism and rejection of climate change. And all this has been…
Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist is back and armed with data for parents to fight for masks in schools
Your Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist has come to the masking debate armed with new data, and she’s ready to help health-conscious parents advocate at their schools, school boards and churches. Emily Smith, assistant professor of epidemiology at Baylor University and a…
Of sheep and goats, vaccines and conspiracies, biblical literacy and illiteracy
I’m not exactly sure when or how it happened, but calling someone a sheep is now meant to be an insult. In this new vernacular, being called a “sheep” or “sheeple” means you’re foolish and easily led astray. It means…