Members of the Williamson County-based Tennessee Stands are warning the public that a new bill making its way through the Tennessee General Assembly that purports to protect religious liberty does the opposite.
Legislators say that the bill, HB 1867, and its companion legislation, SB 1823, will secure religious exemptions for healthcare workers. The Tennessee General Assembly’s website lists Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) as the house sponsor. The website also lists Senator and Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) as the senate sponsor.
But in a new YouTube video, Tennessee Stands Executive Director Gary Humble warned that the bill, if enacted into law, will not secure religious exemptions for healthcare workers. He said the fact that Johnson, in his capacity as Senate majority leader, is sponsoring the bill “always means that this is the governor’s [Bill Lee’s] bill.”
“Instead of the employee just being able to go to the employer and say ‘I have a medical exemption,’ that’s not good enough,” Humble said.
“This bill puts an additional burden on the employee to go to a licensed physician and have a written statement and medical proof that you have a medical exemption so that you can turn that into your employer.”
The employer, Humble went on to say, can deny your exemption in writing.
“Without this bill on the books, currently at least there is some ambiguity as to whether your employer had a right to deny your religious exemption. And then the court would have to make the determination as to whether you were discriminated against,” Humble said.
“That is not a good scenario because the courts suck. So far in Tennessee neither the chancery courts, the circuit courts, or the federal courts have been on our side on this issue.”
“Putting this in law for the first time codifies it or says that your employer does have a right to deny your religious exemption if it is in writing.”
Humble went on to say that members of the Tennessee General Assembly don’t listen to the bill’s critics and don’t care what they have to say.
“At the end of the day [legislators] are going to do what they’re going to do. This is the governor’s bill. This bill, no matter how much noise we make, is going to pass. All the minions are going to fall in line with party line politics, and they are going to pass this bill on the floor with the language as is. And after it passes, they are going to tell you that this bill secures religious exemptions for all the healthcare workers,” Humble said.
“They are going to pat themselves on the back. Everybody will cheer. And it’s going to be on FOX News and Newsmax and all over conservative news that the Tennessee governor just protected religious exemptions and fought back against Biden’s federal overreach and this will be a campaign headline for the governor’s reelection. That is what this is.”
Watch the video:
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Woman Wearing a Mask” by Surprising_Shots.
When the government subsidizes one religion, in this case, right-wing fundamentalist religion, it endangers other people’s religions and even other Christian denominations. In fact, it even poses a danger to the religious denomination that the government subsidizes by making that particular religious denomination financially dependent upon the very government from which it wants to be free. Remember the old saying about they who control the purse-strings!
We as a free people should not require a Waiver, if I refuse to take it that should be enough and my employer and government should not be allowed to force me or Punish me in any way. That is what Freedom is. Freedom to Chose my own path.
This is another useless bill ment to slowly take away our freedoms, Bill Lee needs to be voted out. Anyone who does not respect our freedoms is a Communist and needs to be removed.
Healthcare workers will keep leaving in droves. COVID shots were useless and dangerous to begin with, and they become more useless by the day. Pretty soon, Tennessee can have the military take over the healthcare system like NY and AZ. Delays for receiving health care in TN are up to weeks or months already, and inpatient care is composed now of exhausted, burned-out skeleton crews, at best. So, go ahead all you Dems and swamp RINOs , make it worse.
Amen. And when they are old, lying in their dirty diapers, wondering why no one is coming to bring them water, change them, or bring pain medicine, they will have only themselves to thank. Have fun in purgatory.
I remind people that the Church brought us the first Hospitals in Western civilization. And the Church has always maintained that there were 10 Commandments, 7 deadly sins, and #1 Golden Rule. What we are witnessing here is greed feeding off slothfulness and gluttony, all three of the seven deadly sins.
👏👏👏👏👏 TN stands. Don’t be RINOS, legislators; protect your TN neighbors
When it comes to Healthcare, sooner or later the corporate suits and frat boy politicians are going to have to put their own scrubs on and get in there and wipe grandma’s rear. Mandating any type of medical procedure on young child bearing females is a big no-no. Nurses will simply walk off the job. Many have left and will never return, including myself who spent the last 24 years at bedside
As far as businesses go, I would not do business with any organization that did not respect the religious convictions of others. It is my understanding that some are composing a list of such companies. I would also not work for any organization that did not respect mine or others religious convictions. #gobroke