A Rocklin church handed out hundreds of exemption letters Sunday for people who do not want to take the COVID-19 vaccine. This followed recent announcements from several employers imposing new vaccine requirements on employees.During Sunday service, Pastor Greg Fairrington of Destiny Christian Church explained his reasons for offering the exemption letters.”You have the freedom to choose, and nobody should be able to mandate that you have to take a vaccine or you lose your job. That’s just not right, here in America,” Fairrington said.State workers, teachers and health care workers in California are facing requirements to show proof that they have been vaccinated or to take regular tests for COVID-19 if they cite religious or medical exemptions.The letters, signed by Farrington, detail a religious objection to getting the COVID-19 vaccine that people can show their employer. Parking at the church was scarce on Sunday. In addition to regulars showing up, there were people who said they went specifically because they heard about the exemption letters. Crystal Miller of Merced said she drove for more than two hours.”I just found out about this at 4 in the morning. Someone sent me an Instagram, and I just got up, started listening to the services here and I drove all the way here to support them in this,” Miller said. A professor at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, explains that employers can legally require employees to take vaccines as long as they make reasonable accommodations for sincere religious beliefs, which impose a minimal burden on the employer. Those accommodations can include allowing employees to take COVID-19 tests instead. However, it depends on the job.”If we’ve got employees who have a front-facing job where they have to see people, it would be more than a minimal burden to put them in a non-front-facing position and an employer probably would not be required to do that,” Jacobs said.That means refusing the vaccine could cost some people their jobs.”I think people will lose their jobs if they refuse to take the vaccines even if they have exemptions for some positions because the law does not require employers to keep employees on the job if they can’t do it,” Jacobs said. “So, we will see that. Will we see this going to court? I’m sure we will.”When KCRA 3 News reached out to the Placer County Public Health Department for comment, it stressed that the vaccine is the most important tool to curb the spread of COVID-19. The department also pointed out that it is not necessary to have a letter from a church to qualify for a religious exemption. An individual can sign their own declination form that explains that the worker is declining vaccination based on religious beliefs.
ROCKLIN, Calif. —
A Rocklin church handed out hundreds of exemption letters Sunday for people who do not want to take the COVID-19 vaccine. This followed recent announcements from several employers imposing new vaccine requirements on employees.
During Sunday service, Pastor Greg Fairrington of Destiny Christian Church explained his reasons for offering the exemption letters.
“You have the freedom to choose, and nobody should be able to mandate that you have to take a vaccine or you lose your job. That’s just not right, here in America,” Fairrington said.
State workers, teachers and health care workers in California are facing requirements to show proof that they have been vaccinated or to take regular tests for COVID-19 if they cite religious or medical exemptions.
The letters, signed by Farrington, detail a religious objection to getting the COVID-19 vaccine that people can show their employer.
Parking at the church was scarce on Sunday. In addition to regulars showing up, there were people who said they went specifically because they heard about the exemption letters. Crystal Miller of Merced said she drove for more than two hours.
“I just found out about this at 4 in the morning. Someone sent me an Instagram, and I just got up, started listening to the services here and I drove all the way here to support them in this,” Miller said.
A professor at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, explains that employers can legally require employees to take vaccines as long as they make reasonable accommodations for sincere religious beliefs, which impose a minimal burden on the employer.
Those accommodations can include allowing employees to take COVID-19 tests instead. However, it depends on the job.
“If we’ve got employees who have a front-facing job where they have to see people, it would be more than a minimal burden to put them in a non-front-facing position and an employer probably would not be required to do that,” Jacobs said.
That means refusing the vaccine could cost some people their jobs.
“I think people will lose their jobs if they refuse to take the vaccines even if they have exemptions for some positions because the law does not require employers to keep employees on the job if they can’t do it,” Jacobs said. “So, we will see that. Will we see this going to court? I’m sure we will.”
When KCRA 3 News reached out to the Placer County Public Health Department for comment, it stressed that the vaccine is the most important tool to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The department also pointed out that it is not necessary to have a letter from a church to qualify for a religious exemption. An individual can sign their own declination form that explains that the worker is declining vaccination based on religious beliefs.