The 3 - October 31, 2021

This week's edition of The 3 highlights three more stories of relevance to the Christian community, including a student group at a university in Texas that has received official recognition by the school.  Also, there are more developments surrounding religious exemptions to the COVID vaccine.  And, a Bible app has been removed from the Apple Store in China.

Texas university reverses course on recognizing Christian group

There is a nationwide student group that has chapters on campuses that is called, Ratio Christi. And, at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, it was not granted recognition as an official campus group because, of all things, it required its leaders to be Christians.

Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on Monday of last week, and Friday, the school announced it had done an about-face and made the "decision to grant full recognition" to Ratio Christi on that campus, according to the ADF website.

ADF Legal Counsel Caleb Dalton stated:

"...We commend the university and its general counsel for taking quick action to correct this injustice. Now, the university must do the next right thing and rescind the unconstitutional policies that are still in place that were used to exclude Ratio Christi because it requires its leaders to agree with its values and mission. It’s natural and expected that a Christian organization would require its leaders to be Christian; the university allows other organizations to have similar, commonsense leadership requirements..."

Federal judge rules that unvaccinated federal employees cannot be terminated during lawsuit

Across the nation, employees are standing against being forced to take the COVID-19 vaccination.  Some are actually losing their jobs because of their action.  A number of these employees have attempted to apply for religious exemptions, only to find those requests rejected.

ChristianHeadlines.com reported on the actions of a federal judge in the D.C. Circuit who granted a favorable ruling to federal employees, civilian and military, who do not wish to take the shot. The article said:

According to Fox News, both civilian and active-duty military plaintiffs had sued the administration for not granting them religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccines.

The story quoted District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who said, "None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exception is pending..." The Christian Headlines article also noted:

Additionally, the judge ruled "active duty military plaintiffs, whose religious exception requests have been denied, will not be disciplined or separated during the pendency of their appeals."

Meanwhile, an attempt by officials to judge the quality of a person's religious exemption was highlighted by The Christian Post, which reported that...

The Safer Federal Workforce task force website posted an updated template on Friday for the federal government to use when assessing whether an employee can qualify for a religious exemption.

Questions asked on the form include a request to “describe the nature of your objection to the COVID-19 vaccination requirement” and an explanation for how being vaccinated would “substantially burden your religious exercise or conflict with your sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The Post article quoted a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Andrea R. Lucas, who shared this with The Federalist: “The law does not provide a pandemic-related exception for disregarding the rights of religious employees...No matter the context, intrusive questions presuming insincerity from the start, seeking to ‘catch’ an employee in an inconsistency, and looking for any reason to deny a religious accommodation request, are inappropriate.”

Also, as the article notes, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley "sent a letter to the leadership of the Safer Federal Workforce Taskforce arguing that the questions showcased a 'contempt for religious liberty.'"

Bible app removed from Apple store in China

A Bible app has been removed from the Apple Store for customers in China, an indication of how American companies desire to appease that government, even at the expense of religious freedom. 

CBN.com reported that the app, Bible App by Olive Tree, as well as a Quran app, Quran Majeed, had been removed, pointing out that, "Chinese officials claim the apps violate laws that prohibit the use of religious text or materials."  This was actually publicized by a Twitter account called AppleCensorship.com, which monitors incidents of censorship by the tech giant.

The article also notes:

A spokesperson from Olive Tree told the Washington Examiner, "We are currently reviewing the requirements to obtain the necessary permit with the hope that we can restore our app to China's App Store and continue to distribute the Bible worldwide."