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foxnews.com/us/states-seek-to-cut-off-religious-exemptions-for-vaccination
Connecticut's Attorney General gave state lawmakers the legal go-ahead Monday to pursue legislation that would prevent parents from exempting their children from vaccinations for religious reasons, a move that several states are considering amid a significant measles outbreak.
The non-binding ruling from William Tong, a Democrat, was released the same day public health officials in neighboring New York called on state legislators there to pass similar legislation . Most of the cases in the current outbreak have been in New York state.
[...] Connecticut is just one of several states considering whether to end longstanding laws that allow people to opt out of vaccinations for religious purposes. In the face of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, some have alleged religious exemptions have been abused by "anti-vaxxers" who believe vaccines are harmful despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
But the proposals to eliminate the opt-outs have also sparked emotional debates about religious freedom and the rights of parents.
Most religions have no prohibitions against vaccinations, according to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee. Yet the number of people seeking the religious exemption in Connecticut has been consistently climbing. There were 316 issued during the 2003-04 school year, compared to 1,255 in the 2017-18 school year.
[...] All 50 states have laws requiring students to have certain vaccinations. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, all but Mississippi, West Virginia and California grant religious exemptions. As of Jan. 30, the conference said 17 states allowed people to exempt their children for personal, moral or other philosophical beliefs.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 08 2019, @05:28PM (1 child)
An interesting case in point has to be the Satanic Temple [thesatanictemple.com], who are an officially recognized church, but also very political in nature. Their main role has been, every time Christian right-wingers try to put religion into the public sphere, to say "Great, that means we can put our religion into the public sphere! Finally!" Frequently, the Christian right-wingers respond with something along the lines of "Wait, no, we didn't mean that, just our religion!" and change their minds about the policy.
The best part is that they have actually produced materials for these projects like:
1. A statue of goat-faced Baphomet with 2 kids gazing adoringly at him, which they used to successfully stop laws permitting religious displays in the Oklahoma and Arkansas state capitols, and was cool enough to get copied by the Netflix show The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
2. After School Satan, a club that uses public school buildings to gather motivated kids and teach them to employ critical thinking skills and scientific methods.
3. The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities, a short booklet that encourages young readers to be inclusive with their peers.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 08 2019, @07:57PM
That is a good example, I was aware of, but wasn't thinking of at the time I posted.
And of course, their political activism is their right.
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