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Marines Granted First Military Religious Exemptions from Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate

Marines Granted First Military Religious Exemptions from Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate

None of the other branches of the military has granted any religious exemptions for COVID-19 yet.

The US Marines have established a beachhead on the shores of religious liberty.

The Marine Corps has granted two service members a permanent religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the first military branch to do so, the service announced Thursday in a regular update.

The Corps says that, to date, it has received 3,350 requests for religious exemption to the mandate and processed 3,212. The two exemptions announced Thursday are the first for vaccines that the service has granted in at least the last 10 years.

None of the other branches of the military has granted any religious exemptions for COVID-19 to date.

However, there are many more on the docket to be considered.

In its weekly Covid-19 update, the Marine Corps said it had received 3,350 requests for religious exemptions and had processed 3,212 of them. But for the first time, the Marine Corps said it had granted two of the requests. The service offered no additional information about why these specific requests had been granted.

Each of the services has received several thousand requests for religious exemptions to the military’s vaccine mandate. But until this week, none of those requests have been granted, though the services still have many requests to process.

According to the latest updates, the Navy received 3,038 religious exemption requests, though the service does not say how many have been processed. The Army has received 2,128 requests and rejected 162 so far. The Air Force has received 2,387 and rejected 229.

Given that double-vaccinated and boosted Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin became infected with covid, all requests should be granted if for no other reason than to boost morale. Given how ineffective the vaccines become over a relatively short period of time, and considering that the disease has mild to moderate symptoms on healthy, young adults, the decision would not jeopardize readiness.

Of course, that is assuming Biden’s military appointees want to support the troops. Frankly, based on their choices, that assumption is questionable.

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Comments

Well we’ll well

Maybe someone in the chain of command is finally questioning their orders to deny the requests.

With only 180 requests left to process, it comes to late for the other 3k already rejected.

I don’t see why belief in a sky-daddy gets you priority over people who just don’t want the vaccination. Surely that’s as much a freedom of religion thing as anything.

    henrybowman in reply to rhhardin. | January 19, 2022 at 10:23 am

    American jurisprudence has progressed to the point that “religious freedom” no longer requires belief in a sky-daddy. Strongly-held, consistent philosophical principles is enough under precedent in most cases.

    Doc-Wahala in reply to rhhardin. | January 19, 2022 at 1:15 pm

    Aahhh okidoke.

    Please forgive any sharp pains you have been feeling. I am working on removing pins from the voodoo doll.

    Milhouse in reply to rhhardin. | January 19, 2022 at 4:45 pm

    Because the constitution says that Congress shall make no law .. prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]. Not wanting a vaccination doesn’t mean Congress has to give you what you want.

      Ironclaw in reply to Milhouse. | January 19, 2022 at 7:25 pm

      Wouldn’t the 4th-amendment right to be secure in your person give the right to say no, no jab for me?

        Milhouse in reply to Ironclaw. | January 20, 2022 at 1:48 am

        No. A jab is neither a search nor a seizure, and those are the only things the fourth amendment says you have a right to be secure from. And only unreasonable ones, at that.

        But even if it did give you that right, it still wouldn’t prevent the government from making it a condition of your employment that you consent to be jabbed.

Covid latest news: No more masks and back to the office as Plan B restrictions dropped

The Prime Minister has scrapped his Covid-19 Plan B in England, ditching the use of face masks from next Thursday and telling people to stop working from home, signalling the beginning of the end of coronavirus.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/covid-latest-news-coronavirus-restrictions-tests-cases-vaccine/

    mailman in reply to Neo. | January 19, 2022 at 10:36 am

    The thing that annoys me about decisions like this is what difference does it make having to wait until next FUCKING Thursday? Just make them pointless (in a legal sense) NOW not next fucking week.

    randian in reply to Neo. | January 19, 2022 at 11:51 am

    That’s today, next week Boris will reverse course.

“it has received 3,350 requests for religious exemption to the mandate and processed 3,212. The two exemptions announced Thursday”

I don’t know anybody with a finger small enough to stick into such a microscopic crack in the dike.

IIRC, the only two exemptions were given to people leaving the service. Nobody has actually gotten an exemption if they’re staying in the marines.

This seems like a token talking point, hiding the truth about their lack of religious practice protection.

Seems like they are separating some at the same time they are increasing the signing bonus. Why would they do that?