By Illinois Review
In the month of May alone, Target, But Light and North Face have lost over $25 billion in value since the companies started pushing their woke agendas – partnering with trangender activist Dylan Mulvaney in Bud Light’s case; pushing a pride-themed children’s clothing line in Target stores; and a “come out” pride ad directed at apparel company North Face’s customers.
But as financial data reveals, the strategies backfired in a major way, costing these companies billions of dollars in just a short period of time, as conservatives and people of faith across America push back, in ways never before seen.
But that’s not all. Recent court filings reveal that Chicago-based United Airlines is demanding that employees who filed a religious exemption request in response to the company’s vaccine mandate, must hand over private communications with pastors and religious leaders, to prove their requests were legitimate, after the company mandated the COVID-19 vaccine last August for all 67,000 employees in the US.
In court documents, the airline alleges that,
“Plaintiffs hide behind the shield of clergy privilege in an attempt to protect against discovery of communications that might tend to undermine any claim of sincerity, or that may otherwise show their positions on vaccines are not supported by the religious teachings of their church and instead are motivated by political, secular or other reasons not protected by Title VII.”
The motion continues,
“Without access to the contemporaneous communications made by Plaintiffs regarding the specific areas over which are relevant to this suit, United is left with essentially nothing more to evaluate the sincerity of Plaintiffs’ religious beliefs than to take them at their word. The trust requirement runs contradictory to the adversarial nature of our justice system, which allows parties to verify and test the credibility of parties’ assertions.”
In September of 2021, eight employees filed a lawsuit against United Airlines on behalf of more than 2,000 employees, who were seeking a religious exemption from the company’s vaccine mandate.
If an employee’s religious exemption was accepted, they were placed on unpaid leave and stripped of medical benefits in what the company referred to as a “reasonable accommodation.”
Families – especially single parents and veterans, faced many challenges, when their medical benefits were stripped from them – with many needing ongoing health care treatments.
On May 30, 2023, attorneys representing United Airlines requested that employees produce “all communications with any religious or spiritual advisors regarding vaccines or immunizations since the age of 18…”
The request also included “any communication you sent to or received from with any religious or spiritual leaders about the subject of United’s vaccine policy, the COVID-19 vaccine, your requests for accommodation, your placement on unpaid leave, or this Lawsuit itself from January 1, 2020 through time of trial.”
During a US Senate hearing in December of 2021, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t mix words when confronting United CEO Scott Kirby, when he quoted from an opinion written on December 13, 2021 by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Ho, who referred to the airlines’ “apparent disdain for people of faith,” writing,
“United’s mandate reflects an apathy, if not antipathy, for many of its employees’ concerns and a dearth of toleration for those expressing a diversity of thought. Through both its policy and its official statements to employees, United has demonstrated a ‘calloused approach to and apparent disdain for people of faith.’”
Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH) on behalf of seven employees and numerous others who were unlawfully denied religious exemptions from the covid vaccine mandate without explanation or the ability to appeal.
SIH arbitrarily approved the religious exemptions of some employees while denying the exemptions of others.
The SIH exemption form illegally demanded that a third-party religious leader verify the sincerity of the employee’s beliefs and the employee’s membership “in good standing” in a religious organization.
https://lc.org/newsroom/details/092221-southern-illinois-healthcare-must-accept-religious-exemptions
I don’t like the concept of giving an employer or school the authority to determine whether one’s religious beliefs are legitimate enough to warrant a religious exemption to being vaccinated. They shouldn’t be allowed to make that sort of determination.
I also don’t like it when a religious leader or organization is required to sign off on someone’s religious exemption. You shouldn’t need another human being to sign off on what your religious beliefs are.
A religious exemption should be based solely on one’s relationship with God. One’s employer or school has no right to appoint themselves as theologians in judgement of their employees’ or students’ religious beliefs.
I’m a Christian and my religious beliefs have nothing to do with what any human religious leader or institution says or does. My beliefs are solely based on my own relationship with Jesus and my own understanding of the Bible.