Florida, Vaccines and Religious Liberty
Mr. Uthmeier in July issued a peremptory letter to Catholic bishops accusing them of violating Church doctrine and state law by requiring students to be immunized and not allowing parents who object to vaccines for religious reasons to opt out. There is “no legitimate religious reason” to deny religious exemptions, he wrote.
Thus sayeth the gospel of James Uthmeier. “As a Catholic, I am confident that the teachings of the Catholic Church do not require Catholic schools to compel students to take vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children against the sincerely-held religious objections of their parents,” he asserted.
“Institutions run by the Catholic Church now threaten to place an undue burden on parents that would effectively deny them the fundamental right to choose a school that corresponds to their own convictions,” he added. Failure to allow religious exemptions “could jeopardize eligibility for state educational scholarship programs.”
He might have done Catholic bishops the courtesy of meeting with them to discuss the issue before posting his threatening letter on social media. Perhaps he thinks picking a public fight with the bishops is smart politics.
