Expect a surge of religious objections to vaccine mandates in America

PATRONS OF natural-juice bars and yoga studios are all too familiar with the phrase “my body is a temple”. They may not know its biblical provenance: “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,” says the New Testament. Elsewhere it warns: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.”

People who resist the covid-19 vaccine on religious grounds often cite those lines from scripture. They see jabs as pollutants. Others think God alone will protect them from the virus. When New York state denied health-care workers an opt-out from the vaccine for religious reasons, they sued. On September 14th a judge temporarily barred the state from withholding such exemptions.

The constitution gives protections to people to exercise their faith freely, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ensures those exist in most workplaces. If employees’ beliefs are “sincerely held,” then companies must “reasonably accommodate” them. Firms can accommodate vaccine-objectors by, for example, asking them to work remotely, or to test regularly (as the federal mandate allows for employees at private firms). That is easier at an ad agency or in a shop than at a hospital or care home, where jab-nots can endanger patients.

The rub is determining what beliefs count as “sincere”. They need not accord with an organised religion (and...