(LifeSiteNews) – A group of over fifty faith leaders, organizations, and individual scientists has penned a strong letter to the U.S. Department of Defense demanding that the COVID jab mandate be halted.
In light of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) mandate that servicemen must take a COVID-19 injection, the religious freedom group Freedom of Religion – United Solutions (FOR-US), has released an open letter questioning its “necessity and efficacy,” and warning of Constitutional violations from the mandate.
“We question the necessity and efficacy of the Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” reads the letter, addressed to the Congressional Armed Services Committees.
“We request formation of a Congressional Policy Commission to conduct a thorough, publicly transparent, study of the mandate’s impact on armed forces readiness and on national security interests. We request that the Executive Office be urged to stay the mandate no later than Veterans Day, November 11, 2021, and maintain this stay until the commission concludes consideration of this matter with recommendations.”
The signatories said that the mandates were forcing servicemen who oppose the jab for religious reasons to “choose between keeping their spiritual sovereignty or serving the nation” and that this is a direct violation of “their First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution.”
The DOD has set November 28 as a deadline for compliance with its vaccine mandate. However, Army Medical Services Corp. veteran Pam Long has already noted how service member’s right to secure a religious objection to taking the injection is protected by law.
And as previously reported by The Defender, military members have the right to pursue a religious accommodation for a vaccine through a process that includes input from their commander, chaplain, medical provider and legal advisors.
However, FOR-US remarked how “regardless of their antibody status, DoD personnel who oppose the mandate for religious reasons risk separation, termination, court-martial, and even dishonorable discharge, which are permanent blots on their personal reputations.”
Noting the Nuremberg Code’s protection of informed consent to medical procedures, as well as the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, the group outlined a series of demands, asking for a “Congressional Policy Commission” to pursue those demands.
Among the requests made, FOR-US asked for a “full report on the status of all mandate exemption requests” and a “full analysis” on the precautions the DoD has taken to maintain national security in light of “increased rates of attrition and declines in retention following the mandate.”
Writing that Americans “deserve public transparency of the mandate decision process and its consequences on armed forces readiness and national security interests,” FOR-US declared that pausing the mandate was crucial to “making a judicious assessment of the safety of the Republic and its people.”
Established in 2019, FOR-US describes itself as the “first organization to preserve religious freedom through the unification of multiple religions in an effort to protect religious vaccine exemptions.”
The group, comprised of over 50 “faith leaders,” has garnered over 1,500 signatures for its letter to the DoD, as well as prominent doctors who have warned about the dangers of COVID injections, like Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Sheri Tenpenny.
Speaking to LifeSiteNews, Dr. Shannon Kroner, the executive director of FOR-US, re-iterated that the group is “dedicated to preserving individual sovereignty and giving a voice to religious minorities in military, government and civilian positions who are seeking exemptions to the COVID-19 mandate.”
As such, the group’s letter is an attempt to “highlight the need for more robust due diligence in strategic national security risk assessments and policy making and the need for accountability in leadership,” Kroner said.
The DoD’s vaccine mandate “poses an unknown, emergent threat to readiness and national security interests,” she added.
It “has and will continue to force millions of military service members, civilians, and contractors, (some of whom are working with me in this effort), to decide between a violation of their individual sovereignty, their personal religious values, and their service to our great nation,” Kroner continued.
Emphasizing the letter’s appeal for “transparency” behind the decision to mandate the injection, Kroner asked for fellow Americans to “support our armed service members, civilians and contractors who have no voice in this fight, by signing our letter and sharing it on social media in support of FOR-US’s efforts to help our military.”
U.S. servicemen are already issuing legal challenges to the mandate, and Liberty Counsel is representing 14 members of the Armed Forces – including two Navy SEALS, an Air Force Major, and an Army Colonel – in a class action lawsuit against the mandate, which they described as “illegal.” “The Biden administration has no authority to require the COVID shots for the military or for federal employees or civilian contractors,” explained Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel’s chairman.
Meanwhile reports have noted that “hundreds of thousands” of troops have yet to receive an injection or take their second dose, with the Marine Corp Reserve, Army Reserves, and the Army National Guard being among the lowest percentage in their take-up rate. All three groups are less than 40 percent fully injected, according to DoD data from October 8, though the Army National Reserve and the Army National Guard have until the end of June 2022 to comply with the mandate.
Former Navy SEAL, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) has been tweeting daily to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, asking if he was “really willing to allow a huge exodus of experienced service members just because they won’t take the vaccine? Honestly, Americans deserve to know how you plan on dealing with this blow to force readiness – it’s already causing serious problems.”
Question for the SECDEF: are you really willing to allow a huge exodus of experienced service members just because they won’t take the vaccine?
Honestly, Americans deserve to know how you plan on dealing with this blow to force readiness – it’s already causing serious problems.
— Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) September 21, 2021
After repeating this message for a number of days, Rep. Crenshaw has since been daily asking Austin when he planned to reply.
RELATED
Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for the US Military is a national security threat
In apparent reversal, US military archbishop issues statement opposing vaccine mandates