GOD TOLD ME TO.

Hey, 2022 sucks so far! I see that federal judge Reed O’Connor -- the nutcake who tried to overturn Obamacare and then blocked its protection of trans patients’ rights -- has ruled the Navy can’t visit “any adverse action” on SEALs who have refused their ordered COVID vaccinations “for a variety of reasons based upon their Christian faith.” 

For those of you wondering why Jesus wouldn’t want you to be vaccinated, the decision lists the various grounds for the plaintiffs’ objections: “(1) opposition to abortion and the use of aborted fetal cell lines in development of the vaccine; (2) belief that modifying one’s body is an af[f]ront to the Creator; (3) direct, divine instruction not to receive the vaccine; and (4) opposition to injecting trace amounts of animal cells into one’s body.”

Speaking as a non-nut, they all seem more or less loony to me -- the “aborted fetal cell” bit, for example, is a very clumsy daisy-chain, since no such cells are in the vaccines but the research that led to them partly involved fetal cells derived from abortions from 40 or 50 years ago. (I wonder how they’d respond if someone tried to exempt themselves from COVID vaccine on the grounds they partly derived from Henrietta Lacks’ genetic materials? Maybe that’ll be conservatives' next big play for the African-American vote!)

But I especially like #3, which seems like a really convenient get-out-of-obeying-orders card. Don’t like the duty? “I have received direct, divine instruction not to peel potatoes in the service of Mammon.” 

The people celebrating this, you will not be surprised to learn, hate that gay and trans people are allowed to serve, but approve servicemembers blowing off orders to receive just one in a series of mandated vaccinations because that specific vaccine has become a rightwing hate object.  It’s really a drag, constantly having to accommodate a relatively small but politically powerful pro-COVID party in this country.