Sacrament and Mitzvah

6 December 2021

 

Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

No Religious Exemptions from Vaccine Mandates

 

The City of New York is probably going to find itself in court, sued by religious schools and related institutions over the secular requirement that people get vaccinated against the corona virus that causes Covid-19. Everyone at such an institution (56,000 people at 930 institutions) must have a vaccination by December 20. The schools have until December 28 to provide the city with proof. There are exemptions for religious and medical reasons. Among city workers who also are mandated to get the shots, the city has granted 1,400 such exemptions while denying another 1,700. While the religious leaders will object to the mandate in court, this journal takes the view that religious exemptions are a danger to public health.

The Catholic Church's leaders should be familiar with the verse that includes "render unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's . . . ." There can be no mistake that Caesar, in this case the city, has the authority to manage public health. If the city requires people to get the shot, the Gospel of Matthew (in red letters) supports the move.

New York City also benefits from the presence of a large Jewish community, who are less impressed with the Gospels than the Church of Rome is. However, a source in Judaism about as solid as St. Matthew is in Christianity does exist in the form of Hillel the Elder. The good people at Chabad.org wrote this about him and health.

Hillel was once walking down the street with his students when he changed directions and began walking towards the bath house. When his students asked him where he was headed, he responded, 'To fulfill a commandment from G d! I am going to take a bath.'

Seeing their confusion, Hillel the Elder said, 'If statues of kings that are made in the likeness of a mortal of flesh and blood require cleaning and polishing, how much more so our bodies, which were created in the likeness of G d.'

Hillel would constantly emphasize the importance of taking care of one's physical health, even going so far as to comparing his soul to a guest inside his own body. Just as one must prepare the room properly, with all its amenities, for an honored guest, so too must a person take care that one's body is a worthy space for the soul.

Keeping the temple of the body free of viruses would almost certainly find favor with the rabbi. He also said, "that which is hateful unto you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah; the rest is commentary." Getting infected with a lethal virus is certainly hateful, so one ought not spread it.

Naturally, scripture can be used to justify just about anything (e.g. chattel slavery). Science is not quite so suited to abuse. The scientific facts are that the virus kills about 2% of the people it infects, and about 20% of survivors have long-term health problems. There are people who cannot medically get a vaccine. They make up a small percentage of the human race, and their best form of protection is for everyone else around them to be vaccinated. Religious exemptions merely reduce the number of people around them who are protected and who protect them by being vaccinated.

The virus does not care what one believes: 4,000 gods, 1 god or none. Its sole purpose is to survive, and it does so by infecting human hosts who then spread it to others. When transmission ceases, so does the virus. In a society where 1% are unvaccinated, the virus is more or less doomed. In a society where 30% are unvaccinated, the virus will survive. In places where 30% are vaccinated, it will thrive.

While this journal does not believe in a deity, one does think that, if there were a god, it would prefer humans to the virus. The vaccine is a sacrament and a mitzvah.


© Copyright 2021 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.


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