A new law proposed in South Carolina could make it illegal for an employer or other organization to ask about a person’s vaccine status.
South Carolina House Bill 4848, also called the “don’t ask” bill, would make questions about a person’s COVID-19 status a misdemeanor crime.
“Notwithstanding another provision of law to the contrary, any employee, officer, agent, or other representative of a public, nonprofit, or private entity who inquires about the COVID-19 vaccination status of any student, employee, member, or anyone else seeking admission on the entity’s premises is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than fourteen thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.” the bill’s text states.
Republican state Rep. Bill Chumley served as one of the co-sponsors of the newly-proposed bill.
“South Carolina didn’t want to get in this fight,” Chumley said, according to FOX Carolina. “It was brought to us by the federal government.”
“States have a right to impose certain laws if they want to, and to not impose others we feel are unconstitutional,” he added.
The bill has currently been moved to committee for further consideration.
The proposed legislation follows the Supreme Court’s ruling against an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) order directing large employers to ensure that their employees are either vaccinated or tested regularly for COVID-19.
As The Daily Wire reported at the time:
The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s emergency rule that would have forced large employers to vaccinate or regularly test their employees.
The decision, delivered Thursday, is a major victory for the mandate’s critics, including The Daily Wire which sued the Biden administration in November. The Daily Wire and others appealed to the Supreme Court to block the order after the Sixth Circuit lifted a stay put in place by the Fifth Circuit.
“OSHA’s COVID–19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency Temporary Standard, 86 Fed. Reg. 61402, is stayed pending disposition of the applicants’ petitions for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and disposition of the applicants’ petitions for writs of certiorari, if such writs are timely sought. Should the petitions for writs of certiorari be denied, this order shall terminate automatically. In the event the petitions for writs of certiorari are granted, the order shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court,” the court concluded in a 6-3 decision.
On Friday, the Supreme Court also struck down a Biden administration order mandating that federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled against the Biden administration, arguing that the president lacked the authority for the decision.
“The court notes at the outset that this case is not about whether folks should get vaccinated against COVID-19—the court believes they should. It is not even about the federal government’s power, exercised properly, to mandate vaccination of its employees,” Brown wrote.
“It is instead about whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment. That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by the Supreme Court, is a bridge too far,” the judge said.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
The reality is that many western governments, including the US and Canada, already have rights and laws protecting them from such overreaching mandates. However, the lawlessness that has crept into the highest levels of government has effectively attempted to ignore those protections for the purpose of attacking citizens’ liberty.
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, religious organizations, churches, and individual Christians have often been targeted by this lawless infringement of rights. We have seen churches, for example, being ordered closed and later pressured to segregate their congregations due to vaccine status, both of which a faithful pastor following scripture cannot comply with.
Answers In Genesis, in November 2021, sued the federal government in response to the OSHA orders that required they mandate the COVID vaccine among their staff. Ken Ham, the Founder and CEO of AiG, explained why they decided to fight back against the orders.
“As Christians, we certainly strive to submit to the government that God ordained as stated in Romans 13, unless our conscience before the Lord can’t allow it,” he asserted. We don’t want to oppose government directives. However, our government also cannot disregard the First Amendment of the US Constitution’s protection of religious liberty in times of crisis.”
“It’s a very personal decision and a matter of one’s own conscience,” Ham pointed out. “When the door is opened to allow the government to have rights over our bodies, how will that door be opened even more for the future in regard to control over people, churches, etc.?”
Ham’s consideration of how these may escalate in the future if government lawlessness remains unchecked is crucial.
Many pastors and Christian teachers have been vocal in warning that vaccine mandates may be a stepping stone to something much more severe described in Bible Prophecy.
God’s Word states that in the future, a global government will emerge on the world scene led by a man referred to as the “antichrist” or the “lawless one.” This satanically inspired man will have power over all the people of the earth and demand to be worshiped. With his heavy hand of control, he will mandate a “mark,” without which a person will not be permitted to “buy and sell” (Revelation 13).
“This is going to be the crisis that could potentially lead to a one-world government,” Jan Markell explained in a recent interview with David Fiorazo.
Unfortunately, when Believers speak about this, “you and I are called conspiracy theorists,” Markell lamented. “Well, I’m sorry, but then the Bible is a conspiracy because it outlined this in Revelation 13!”
