The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Asbury Theological Seminary filed suit against the Biden administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over its COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate.
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced that businesses with 100 or more workers must require vaccination or regular testing for employees, with fines set at $14,000 per violation.
A press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — which is also representing The Daily Wire in its lawsuit against the administration — explained that Biden cannot dictate employment practices to religious institutions.
In the lawsuit, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary v. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, ADF attorneys represent The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Asbury Theological Seminary. The suit alleges that the Biden administration lacks jurisdiction to dictate employment practices to religious institutions, lacks constitutional and statutory authority to issue the employer mandate, and that the mandate failed to meet the required procedural hurdles.
In short, the federal government cannot coerce individuals nationwide to undergo medical treatment, and it lacks authority to conscript employers to compel that result. The lawsuit takes no position on any COVID-19 vaccine or whether any person should make the personal decision to receive it.
“It is unacceptable for the government to force religious institutions to become coercive extensions of state power. We have no choice but to push back against this intrusion of the government into matters of conscience and religious conviction,” explained Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler. “This institution exists for the purpose of educating ministers for churches. This seminary must not be forced to stand in for the government in investigating the private health decisions of our faculty and employees in a matter involving legitimate religious concerns.”
“We are glad to join with Asbury Theological Seminary in taking a stand against government coercion,” he continued. “The fact that the largest U.S. seminaries of the Baptist and Methodist traditions are here standing together against this mandate should send a clear and urgent message to Christians and to the nation.”
“The government has no authority to unilaterally treat unvaccinated employees like workplace hazards or to compel employers to become vaccine commissars, and we are asking the 6th Circuit to put a stop to it immediately,” added ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Bangert.
The Daily Wire’s Megan Basham recently detailed the phenomenon of churches across the United States requiring vaccination for attendees — or effectively segregating members by establishing “vaccinated” and “unvaccinated” sections in their sanctuaries.
“While the public has been busy arguing over whether individuals of faith can credibly claim a religious exemption to government or employer vaccine mandates, many churches have moved well past that stage and have already taken on an enforcer role,” she wrote. “Regardless of one’s feelings on the efficacy and safety of COVID vaccines, Christians must ask whether, in this uniquely unsettled time, where the need for fellowship has arguably never been greater, God would have his shepherds draw this dividing line through his flock.”
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Source: Dailywire
