My Request for a Religious Exemption

...if I ever have to submit one.

I affirm the following is my sincerely held religious belief regarding COVID-19 vaccinations as currently available.

I identify as a gnostic Christian, heavily influenced by early Christian texts and beliefs, but I most often worship with evangelical denominations. “Gnosis” comes from the Greek language meaning “to know”, in contrast with an “agnostic” who “doesn’t know”. What that means to me is that all of divinity that I need to know and understand is within me, if I am able to quiet my soul and listen. This is very close to the concept of priesthood of the believer from Protestant roots. I am the authority over my spiritual life, guided by the Holy Spirit.

I believe in the end times prophecy as laid out in Revelations 13:16

16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

It is not revealed to me for certain whether these vaccines are the “Mark of the Beast” or not. But having to obey an overarching authority in order to engage in economic activity, showing a vaccine card in your hand to buy or sell, or consider the temperature checks aimed at people’s foreheads… Not to mention that aborted fetal cell lines were used in its production. How evil to formulate medicines and drugs out of the bodies of dead children! That alone seems demonic (cannibalistic!) to me. It is highly suspect and concerning to me as a Christian.

As a Gnostic, I must reserve the right to listen to my own internal guidance on whether to take this vaccine or not. If it is forced on me as a condition of employment, that will only confirm that it must be the Mark and for a Christian to accept the mark of the beast is to forfeit one’s eternal soul. No job, no concert, no vacation would be worth forfeiting my eternal soul.

And so you see, the only way I could ever consider getting a COVID vaccine would be if it is my freely made choice, absent pressure or coercion. The more I am excluded from society for refusing this vaccine, the more convinced I become that it is truly a prophesied vehicle for evil that I must have no part of.

Therefore, I respectfully request that you accept my reasoning and grant a religious exemption from any vaccine mandates. I will be unable to accept employment if this request is denied.