Leaked documents from the US Coast Guard made available to the press indicate a draft plan to coax, cajole, and ultimately coerce Coast Guard members into taking the vaccine, even over their potential religious objections. As part of the exemption request process, the Coast Guard members are required to meet with a chaplain. That chaplain is directed to record the meeting in a memorandum:

Note any comments made by the member that make it appear they are using the religious exemption as a ruse to avoid the vaccine…

Have the member describe how they consistently keep the tenets of their faith and demonstrate those in their daily life. Ask them to be as specific as possible. Put the specifics acts (or lack thereof) in the memo.

Note that when a member of the government seeks a religious exemption from a policy, the government is not allowed to pass judgment on the member’s religion, ascertain how ‘well’ they follow the tenets of their faith, or explain to that member what their religion really says. The government is not allowed to try to use the member’s faith to try to convince them to take or oppose any action.

Yet that is precisely what the Coast Guard document tells its chaplains to do:

For those stating that they are seeking an exemption because by quoting 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ask what steps they take to ensure that other foreign substances are not introduced into the body. For those members with visible tattoos, ask how they reconcile that act with their beliefs

Ask whether their religion supports altruism and protection of others, or making sacrifices to help others. If yes, ask whether they have considered that this act could be viewed as protecting others.

While “discussion” may be understandable if a person seeks religious counsel from a faith leader, that is not the role of the government when a request for accommodation has been made. As Mike Berry of the First Liberty Institute explained,

“Legally, the only thing that’s required of a service member is just that they show that they have a sincerely held religious belief and that whatever the government is doing places a substantial burden on that religious belief,” Berry said. “So that’s all they have to show. And then after that, the burden completely shifts to the government to overcome that.”

It appears the memo is only a draft (the memo even uses “tenant” instead of “tenet” and says “Island” instead of “Islam” at one point), and the memo appears to have come from the Coast Guard, rather than one of the larger military branches. That said, it is unconscionable that someone in a governmental chain of command considered using religion to convince its members to accede to the vaccine – over any potential religious objections.

And the memo doesn’t even try to disguise that fact. The memo directs its members asking for a religious exemption to a table with quotes from leaders in various religions. Are you Catholic? The memo includes a quote from the Pope saying the vaccine is ok. Muslim? Check out these Imams who publicly received the vaccine. Southern Baptist? Here’s Russell Moore’s statement. That last one probably wasn’t the best choice.

There is no doubt the objective of the memo is to attempt to overrule any potential religious objection – rather than to accommodate it, as the law requires.

There was another time several years ago when the military included specific religious quotes in training documents with the intent of influencing its members ideas. For years, training for US Air Force nuclear launch crews included a section on Just War theory. The point, of course, was to get those officers to think about the potential repercussions of their actions – for them to consider whether they could ever “push the button” (actually, turn the key) and potentially kill millions of people (and to think about that before they trained to do that job). That seems like a reasonable conversation, yet Michael “Mikey” Weinstein objected to the fact that it included religious references. He caricatured it as “Jesus Loves Nukes” and claimed it was trying to find religious justification for nuclear war. He was wrong, of course, but it got him the attention he wanted.

Still, Weinstein threatened the Air Force over the implication it was trying to use religion to influence its officers to a specific course of action, which is precisely what the Coast Guard is trying to do with this memo.

And what has Weinstein said in response to these leaked documents? Nothing, of course. Weinstein isn’t concerned about religious freedom. In the case of the vaccine, Chris Rodda is already on record saying the MRFF won’t support anyone’s religious objection unless they have a history of religious objection to all vaccines.

Of course, “objecting to all vaccines” isn’t the only religious objection a person might have. For example, there’s at least one member of the military who has said to take the vaccine would be to ‘participate in a lie,’ which would violate his religious beliefs. Whether you agree with it or not, it is a religious objection to the vaccine, and it has nothing to do with his prior acceptance of other vaccines. No one claims that the annual flu shot (which the military requires) perpetuates a lie, for example. But Chris Rodda and Mikey Weinstein won’t hear it, because their goal isn’t a support of religious freedom, but their ideological agenda.

Religious freedom means religious freedom, whether or not you agree with the ideology of that religion. In this case First Liberty appears to be standing on the principle of religious freedom, while Mikey Weinstein and Chris Rodda, well, they stand only for themselves.

It is not the government’s job to explain a person’s religion to them. It is not the government’s job to try to convince a person that their religious beliefs support (or oppose) a particular course of action. The government’s only responsibility is to accommodate that person’s religious beliefs, as required by policy, law, the US Constitution, and human rights.

It’s now public what the US Coast Guard was trying to do. Kind of makes you wonder what the other military branches are doing behind closed doors.

For all the debate about vaccines and public health, and for all the grandstanding, is there really any doubt how the US government – and the US military – views religious freedom?

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