LOUISVILLE, Ky. — People working at companies with 100 or more employees will be required to get vaccinated by Jan. 4 or get a weekly covid test under new rules rolled out by the federal government.
Roughly 400 people work at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, meaning the employer vaccine mandate applies there.
That's why the seminary says they are suing OSHA.
Seminary President Albert Mohler said he is a proponent of vaccines and has gotten three COVID shots himself.
However, Mohler said he thinks the federal government is overreaching by mandating employers to require vaccines or weekly testing.
"The Biden administration's mandate through OSHA, as it is now codified, will turn religious institutions with a sufficient number of employees by arbitrary count into being basically a coercive arm of the regulatory state," Mohler said.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Southern Baptist and three other religious groups suing OSHA because of the mandate.
"By requiring that religious employers enforce an invalid mandate, the federal government is imposing crushing and expensive administrative burdens on the employers and the employees," said David Cortman with the Alliance Defending Freedom. "That's why these lawsuits are so important. If we cede to the federal government, power to enforce religious organizations and to burden them and their employees in this way, what's next and who's next?"
According to the White House, this new policy will get more people vaccinated, protect workers, prevent hospitalizations, save lives and strengthen the economy.
The lawsuit filed Friday requests the court halt the Jan. 4 enforcement date of the mandate until litigation is complete.
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