I gotta have my orange juice.

Although the general employer mandate for vaccination has yet to be issued—and to my surprise it also seems that there is not yet a Medicare requirement against hospitals?—there is an executive order pertaining to federal contractors. My employer is a federal contractor and they are taking the simplifying measure of applying this to all US workers rather than just those who work “in connection with” a contract. I was provided only 350 characters in which to express my religious accommodation:

In accordance with Title VII, I invoke religious exemption from COVID vaccination & testing. I believe unwanted intrusion or tinkering with creation is sinful & degrading, especially in case of my body which is in God’s image (Gen 1) & is his temple (1 Cor 6). I request accommodation of continuing to work from home as I have for 18 months already.

If I had more room the first thing I would have added is a link to my denomination’s religious exemption statement, followed by a citation of Leviticus 19. I found these resources from The Healthy American helpful in focusing my writing: fact sheet, pitfalls to avoid.

Of course I have more reasons than this, but not less. I sincerely believe that there are massive moral-ethical breaches, lies, wickedness, and demonic involvement in what we have experienced over the past two years, from top to bottom. Berenson calls this moment our Chernobyl. The only thing I’m unsure of is the breadth of it, not the depth of it. Thus, I note Lew Rockwell’s team on Marburg and pray they are wrong.

Reading Leviticus this week for To the Word, I am struck by the fact that cleanness is required to come to worship (who may ascend the hill of Yahweh?) but also that cleanness is one of the things that worship itself supplies. Obviously we have to modulate that through the new covenant and definitive sanctification. Perhaps we can say:

• What good is being cleansed without persevering in it? We cannot come to God without Cleansing (once for all) but we also never come to him without needing cleansing (having something fresh on our conscience).
• What good is being cleansed without knowing it? In weekly worship God means to give us the most objective experience of being assured of his love for us that we have, apart from our baptisms.
• What good is being cleansed without going up the hill of Yahweh to enjoy it? We wash our hands and hearts so that we may sit together at table with Jesus and each other.

Wilson says that you shouldn’t ignore your instinct to say second grace.

Matthew Trewhalla’s talk at the County before Country conference was especially good.