Where to begin this week?
“As they impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates, company leaders across the country are facing a flood of requests for religious exemptions,” the Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas reports in a story explaining how employers judge such requests.
“As the Biden administration prepares a federal vaccine mandate and more states and companies impose them to help accelerate the pandemic's end, letter-writing efforts by religious leaders (supporting exemptions) are being reinforced by legal advocacy groups such as Liberty Counsel,” according to Reuters’ Tom Hals.
“The prelate who oversees Catholics in the U.S. military issued a statement Tuesday (Oct. 12) supporting service members who have refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 on religious grounds,” Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins notes.
Here we go again.
For the seventh time in the last year (yes, I counted), news of religion and the COVID-19 vaccines tops the latest Weekend Plug-in. See previous installments here, here, here, here, here and here.
Why does Plug-in keep focusing on this subject? Because it remains major news. And it likely will for a while.
Here are a few more related stories that caught my attention this week:
• Latino Catholics are among the most vaccinated religious groups. Here’s why. (by Alejandra Molina, RNS)
• ‘It’s not Satanism’: Zimbabwe church leaders preach vaccines (by Farai Mutsaka, Associated Press)
• The pandemic has helped religion’s reputation. Do religious vaccine resisters put this progress at risk? (by Kelsey Dallas, RNS)
• ‘A safe space’: Black pastors promote vaccinations from the pulpit (by Liam Stack, New York Times)
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. How one Chicago church is stepping up to help Afghan evacuees: Through the lens of a single congregation, Religion News Service’s Emily McFarlan Miller tells a bigger story.
“Across the country, churches like Immanuel Presbyterian Church are finding practical ways to partner with refugee resettlement agencies as they assist Afghan evacuees now settling into their new homes,” Miller reports.
2. A loyal Catholic’s mission to protect the church from youth football: “Denny Doyle is concerned about the risk of brain injuries to children who play tackle football. And he worries that his beloved church will also pay a price,” the New York Times’ Ken Belson reports.
This is a compelling take on, as Belson describes it, one man’s “mission to get the church out of the business of tackle football.”
3. ‘A hypocrite’: Israelis in publishing say Sally Rooney is turning her back on Hebrew readers: Jerusalem-based religion journalist Michele Chabin reports for The Forward on a controversy involving an Irish author.
“To many in Israel’s literary world, the stand Rooney took to support Palestinians smacks of hypocrisy,” Chabin writes.
CONTINUE READING: “Surprise! Clashes Between Religion And COVID-19 Vaccines Not Going Away” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.