I would like everyone to know that I've recently had some substantial religious revelations. So while I might have been willing to do a lot of things before -- for example, getting vaccinated -- beliefs can obviously change over time.
So, for example, in today's opinion, the Ninth Circuit holds that a healthcare worker who claimed a religious objection to getting vaccinated for COVID-19 could sue when she was placed on unpaid leave for not responding to her employer's questions regarding the sincerity of her purported religious beliefs; e.g., asking her whether she had accepted vaccinations or medicine for other ailments, notwithstanding her alleged belief that the Bible ordered her not to take "foreign substances" into her body.
This ruling obviously makes it harder -- or at least riskier -- for employers to deny religious objections.
Personally, I've always been intrigued by those stricter aspects of Buddhism that require substantial annual pilgrimages; say, 10-day trips to places like Hawaii or Fiji. Careful meditation and such. Often required during, say, final exam or grading periods. Though sometimes I feel like the Seventh Day Adventists are right and that the Bible orders me not to work at all on any Saturdays. I'm pretty flexible over time as to which religious beliefs I find attractive, but once persuaded, I'm very committed to the cause.
Of course sincere religious beliefs should be accommodated. But there may simultaneously be some settings in which a genuine doubt as to one's sincerity might be appropriate and permissible. The demonstrably sudden and unprecedented religiousity of healthcare workers (and others) during COVID-19 might perhaps have been one of those settings.
