Letter from a Small Town Paramedic in the Mountain West - 2of2

Request for vaccine exemption on religious grounds

Yesterday, I posted the first of two letters from Jordan Hayes, a paramedic working for a small town in Wyoming, who finds himself at risk of losing his job if he does not submit to receiving a Covid vaccination. Many Americans currently find ourselves at odds with children’s schools, or our heath insurance or providers, or find access to normal amenities withheld. Worse yet is the prospect of losing your livelihood and a career that you love. It is this situation that Jordan finds himself in.

In yesterday’s letter, Jordan laid out what he calls the “empirical” objections to a vaccine mandate—essentially a compilation of many of the scientific reasons that he should not be forced to be vaccinated. After he wrote the first draft of that letter in November 2021, however, it became clear that he could pursue an exemption only via one of two options:

1. Provide a letter from a doctor detailing why he cannot get the vaccine on medical grounds, or

2. Provide a letter clearly demonstrating that being forced to get a Covid vaccine would violate sincerely held religious beliefs.

Jordan’s second letter, which follows, lays out a compelling argument for religious exemption. It is his and my sincere hope that his letters may be useful to others.

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January 28, 2022

To Whom It May Concern,                                                                            

“Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.” Proverbs 4:24

“Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.”Proverbs 12:17 

The demand placed on me by the City of ***** and ***** Fire Department to get a forced medical treatment, mired in a litany of deceit and narrative massage, violates deeply held personal and religious beliefs. My participation in this blatant attack on central precepts of Judeo-Christian life would drag me into a position of ethical failure and sin. I love serving our community and hope to do so for many years to come. I nonetheless cannot put myself into a position in which I am complicit in a campaign of lies. I politely request an exemption from this mandate because yielding to it would defy sincerely held religious beliefs, and would substantially burden the free exercise of my religious life.

You ask to know the following regarding my private religious beliefs:

1. Explain the nature of your religious beliefs or practices, and why you are requesting this religious exemption:

2. Describe immunization [sic] contradicts your religious beliefs and principles, and identify any further information that supports your belief that immunization contradicts your religious beliefs and practices:

3. Indicate whether you are opposed to all immunizations, and if not, the religious basis that prohibits particular immunizations:

Given the legal standard of “strict scrutiny,” and the notable deference the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) reliably applies to First Amendment challenges, I strongly suspect your demand that I “explain” how my religious beliefs are being violated is already illegal—the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) mandate does not instruct you to ask these questions. The questions above were the creation of the City of *****, and therefore the City of ***** accepts the legal liability a First Amendment injury claim might reveal. Rather, the CMS mandate instructs employers to consider the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) compliance manual that provides guidance on interpretation of religious exemptions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.¹

This manual, quoting Title VII states: “A belief is ‘religious’ for Title VII purposes if it is ‘religious’ in the person’s ‘own scheme of things,’ i.e., it is a ‘sincere and meaningful’ belief that ‘occupies a place in the life of its possessor parallel to that filled by . . . God.” The Supreme Court has made it clear that it is not a court’s role to determine the reasonableness of an individual’s religious beliefs, and that “religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection.”² This is the governing language in the statute and guidance, and thus constitutes the test the City of ***** has been instructed to apply. Therefore I will address what follows directly to the language of Title VII and the EEOC manual. My response here should not be interpreted as expressing the full scope of my religious beliefs, nor all of the ways that the CMS mandate attacks my religious freedoms.

My Judeo-Christian religious beliefs are grounded in the Bible. The Bible repeatedly and continually pronounces that God and the Truth are inextricably linked—a near tautology.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6

"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24

The Bible further instructs us to reject deceit and lies.

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” Proverbs 12:22

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Romans 1:18 

“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” Psalm 34:13 

The CMS lies within its own mandate. Regarding the protection conferred by natural infection to both oneself and the likelihood of passing SARSCoV-2 onto others, they say: “[A]bout 100,000 a day have recovered from infection [...] These changes reduce the risk to both health care staff and patients substantially, likely by about 20 million persons a month who are no longer sources of future infections.”³ [emphasis added] And they also say, “Staff who have previously had COVID-19 are not exempt from these vaccination requirements. Available evidence indicates that COVID-19 vaccines offer better protection than natural immunity alone and that vaccines, even after prior infection, help prevent reinfections.”⁴ Which of these statements is true, which is a lie? They cannot both be true at the same time. If people who have recovered from a previous infection “are no longer sources of future infections” than the second statement is a lie, and vaccination is unnecessary. And for a little salt in the wound, now (Jan 2022) the CDC, which supposedly guides the scientific justifications the CMS uses for these forced medical treatments, has begun admitting that in fact natural immunity was six times more protective during the delta wave than vaccination.⁵ The CMS, and the agencies it relies on for its justifications, have built lies right into the very text of the mandate. 

The deception and manipulation of language the CMS employs for its forced medical treatment campaign is only the latest iteration in a string of lies. Here is a bare sampling of yet more lies and deceit:

Fauci on vaccinated spreading Covid: “We‘ve learned clearly now, without a doubt, that people who are vaccinated get a breakthrough infection, actually have enough virus in their nasopharynx, that they can actually transmit it to other people and have documented transmitted to other people.” The interviewer responds wondering if this means it won’t be possible to “turn the page on coronavirus, because there might be new variants […]”And Fauci responds with a lie: “It doesn’t have to be if the overwhelming majority of the people in this country get vaccinated. We could nail this down by just crushing it.”⁶—Fauci, July 2021. 

Fauci on herd immunity: “When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent ... Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, "I can nudge this up a bit," so I went to 80, 85. […] We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent.” He further said he was following his “gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks."⁷—Fauci, December 2020.

From the Chief Executive of the United States: “No, I don’t think it [vaccines] should be mandatory. I wouldn’t demand it be mandatory.”⁸ —President Joe Biden, December 4th, 2020. He lied.

The same governmental agencies that served the American people this deceptive hogwash, now have the temerity to demand that I submit to a forced medical treatment filled with, based on, and enforced by these same lies and liars? I cannot. The Bible, the scripture that guides my spiritual life, resolutely commands me to reject complicity in lies and deceit, and to participate in this forced medical treatment campaign would make me complicit. The guidance on Title VII interpretation the CMS instructs the City of ***** to follow explicitly states you are not to attempt “to determine the reasonableness of an individual’s religious beliefs, and that “religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection.”⁹ Therefore whether you, the person reviewing this letter, accept or reject my belief that our public officials and the CMS are lying and are liars, is irrelevant. I share this sampling of two-faced deception to demonstrate where the sincerity of my belief is sourced, and how obvious it is that were I to submit to this demand given what I believe, I would put my own spiritual life in severe jeopardy. Lies were deployed to manipulate the public, as Fauci admits. But lying for any reason is a direct attack on Truth, and as I see it, an attack on God. I request an exemption on the grounds that the Bible, in plain language, teaches against lying, deceit, and hypocrisy, and that to submit to this forced medical treatment would conscript me into a campaign of lies, and thereby violate sincerely held religious beliefs.

I believe I have more than sufficiently addressed the first two questions you’ve asked. The third is irrelevant when the text of the guidance for the interpretation of Title VII, the ruling statute, is applied. Not only is it irrelevant, but it is also a contrived attempt to force me into some state of contradiction. Whether I have received previous vaccines has nothing to do with my appraisal of the current situation and its implications for my religious life. Seeing as all vaccines were invented well after the Bible was revealed, the Bible obviously cannot speak directly to how they fit into a good Christian life. This mandate violates the teachings of the Bible not because the Bible forbids vaccination, but because the Bible, the record of God’s Word, forbids deceit, the defiling of one’s body, violation of autonomy, manipulation, coercion, and discrimination, all of which are clearly at work in this forced medical treatment mandate.

The CMS has put the City of ***** and the ***** Fire Department in a tough place—I recognize that. The SCOTUS and the CMS both however have made it abundantly clear that employers have every right, and are in fact commanded, to provide exemptions where an employee demonstrates that submission to this constitutionally dubious mandate (5 to 4 vote) would violate sincerely held religious convictions. The ruling statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, advises that it is not your duty, nor even within your purview, to divine whether my beliefs are consistent, or are correct, or even make sense. You need only establish that 1) my beliefs are “sincere and meaningful,” and 2) that they "occupy a place in my life parallel to that filled by God.” I have provided testimony for both.

Note one final piece of evidence that further demonstrates the sincerity of my beliefs—that I am putting my entire medical career, the income it provides, and all the work I have already done to get here, on the line to remain true to my religious convictions. I have the convictions I profess. The City of ***** will be in alignment with the ruling statements of the SCOTUS and the language of the CMS mandate by granting me this exemption. I respectfully ask that you therefore grant me this relief.

Sincerely,

            —Jordan Hayes, Paramedic, Small Town Wyoming

1. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/cms-omnibus-covid-19-health-care-staff-vaccination-requirements-2021.pdf

2. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/section-12-religious-discrimination

3. 86 Fed. Reg. at 61,604

4. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/cms-omnibus-covid-19-health-care-staff-vaccination-requirements-2021.pdf

5. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7104e1.htm#contribAff

6. https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/dr-fauci-explains-updated-cdc-mask-guidance-for-vaccinated-people-amid-covid-hotspots-117489221538

7. https://www.axios.com/fauci-goalposts-herd-immunity-c83c7500-d8f9-4960-a334-06cc03d9a220.html

8. https://nypost.com/2020/12/04/biden-wont-mandate-getting-covid-19-vaccine-wearing-masks/

9. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/section-12-religious-discrimination