Cedar Valley sees increase in religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements – kwwl.com

CEDAR FALLS/HUDSON, Iowa (KWWL) - As employers and schools continue to mandate vaccines and masks, the amount of religious exemptions is going up. Local pastors say religion is a legitimate excuse to not receive the vaccine, or have to wear a mask.

Truth and honesty are all pastors are asking for when using faith to get out of something like a COVID-19 vaccine or wearing a mask to protect yourself and others from the virus.

"A lot of it is rooted in caution and that hindered conscience," Faith Baptist Church Pastor Sam Jones said.

As many continue to question whether or not religion is a legitimate reason to be exempt from a COVID-19 vaccine, local pastors say, it is.

"We're not saying that every Christian should think this way or that way about it but again taking it on a case by case basis," Candeo Church Teaching Pastor Jake Hering said.

The church members who have concerns, have worries about the long-term effects of the vaccine and mask-wearing. Many have brought up mental and physical health concerns.

"We could see how someone can maybe want to be exempt from those things at least for now," Hering said.

Hering said the pastors at the Cedar Falls church don't impose their own personal beliefs when signing the exemptions, but rather listen to the reasons the church members have.

The pastors also don't just provide exemptions for anyone. The Candeo Church tries to only accept exemption requests from church members, after asking questions and having a conversation.

"Is this truly a conscience level issue for you from a religious standpoint? Or is this something else that you're just trying to use your faith as a cover for something else? Because we don't want that either because that's disingenuous," Hering said.

Not too far away, Faith Baptist Church in Hudson is taking a similar stance. The pastor there already signing nearly 50 exemptions related to COVID-19.

"It's an out of bounds move by the civil government or even by a business or something like that. Something that doesn't have that jurisdiction," Pastor Sam Jones said.

Jones even wrote up a four-paragraph letter template to provide churches and Christians who believe they have "no responsibility to obey any government outside of the scope that has been designated by God."

"Really what it is is self-government, it's not somebody else governing them so that's outside of their scope too so I try not to think about what other people feel or think," Jones said.

Both Pastor Jones and Hering believe that folks should be honest and not abuse religion in order to benefit themselves and maybe even their political values just to get an exemption. Neither of them has had any issues with the religious exemptions being rejected.

Candeo Church pastors have signed about three exemptions, two of which Hering said were for students at the Cedar Falls Schools exempting them from having to wear a mask as their mask mandate was temporarily reinstated.

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Cedar Valley sees increase in religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements - kwwl.com