A prominent Southern Baptist theologian reportedly sued President Joe Biden over his coercive vaccine mandate.
CBN News said Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. has joined the lawsuits filed against Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate which he finds oppressive against religious freedom.
Mohler, who is fully vaccinated and a supporter of the vaccine, filed the lawsuit since the mandate is "coercive" and a "threat" to religious institutions.
The theologian's lawsuit is the latest addition to the string of cases filed in various federal courts this week due to Biden's vaccine mandate for private companies, which included Christian groups and media outlets. Several lawsuits have been filed previously for Biden's vaccine mandate for federal employees and contractors.
Mohler discussed why the seminary is suing the government for the mandate in the third part of the podcast "The Briefing" entitled, "Forcing Religious Institutions To Become Coercive Extensions Of State Power: Why The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Is Suing The Federal Government Over The Biden Administration's Vaccine Mandate," dated November 10.
Mohler introduced the lawsuit, formally called "The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary vs. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration," that was filed through Alliance Defending Freedom in the United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit together with a "sister institution" as their "stand for religious liberty.
"Because that vaccine mandate, handed down by the administration, would effectively turn religious institutions into coercive arms of the administrative state," Mohler said.
According to Mohler, the vaccine mandate would force the seminary to act in conflict with their "religious opinion" within the denomination since there are no exemptions for religious employers. He raised that this was wrong because it infringes on religious freedom and would affect all individuals and institutions and not just theirs.
"That is wrong. It's an infringement of religious liberty, and in defense of religious liberty, we had to take our stand," Mohler defended.
"Numerous challenges to the vaccine mandate have now been entered into various federal courts at the circuit level and these events are certain to be unfolding in days, weeks, and months ahead. But just remember this, if religious liberty is on the line for any institution anywhere, it's actually on the line for all religious institutions and for all American citizens everywhere," he emphasized.
In an interview with CBN News, Mohler elaborated that the vaccine mandate has caused a division within the seminary in so far as its impact on religious freedom is concerned. He pointed out that it is important to challenge the mandate for it would impose on the private lives of their employees, making it "fundamentally wrong."
"This is an imposition which absolutely infringes upon religious liberty in which Christians are of a divided mind. And even our own churches in the Southern Baptist Convention are of a divided mind and this is simply something we cannot allow to go unchallenged. Once the rule was formalized, it was clear that it's going to put the seminary and the college in the position as Christian institutions of inquiring into the private lives of our own employees, staff members, and faculty," Mohler said.
