The State of New York’s 2019 repeal of religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates is the subject of an active legal challenge by Old Order Amish families in the case Miller v. McDonald. Three Amish schools have accumulated $118,000 in fines for refusing to comply, with up to $2,000 per unvaccinated child per day.
At issue here is the right for citizens to live by the dictates of their conscience. This is a battle for the Amish, who have sought nothing more than to live quiet, peaceable lives that honor God, raising their children apart from the corrupting influences of the modern world. They do not lobby for government handouts, they do not riot, and they do not impose their convictions on their neighbors.
Yet, in today’s radicalized political climate, even the simple, separate existence of the Amish is considered an intolerable threat to the secular, authoritarian state.
New York is attempting to force Amish families to violate their religious convictions through heavy-handed medical mandates. At issue is the state’s 2019 repeal of religious exemptions for school vaccination requirements. For over fifty years, New York recognized and accommodated the beliefs of parents. But five years ago, progressive lawmakers stripped away that liberty, openly mocking religious objections as ‘garbage.’
Now, the bureaucratic machine has turned its sights on small, private, rural Amish schools. The state is imposing crippling, catastrophic fines against these faithful communities simply because they refuse to submit their children to state-mandated medical procedures.
To make matters worse, these mandates are compounded by serious questions regarding vaccine efficacy. Studies consistently show that a measurable percentage of vaccinated individuals remain susceptible, and outbreaks continue to emerge in highly vaccinated areas, proving the vaccine is no ‘silver bullet’ for ending viral spread.
Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry aggressively markets products that often contain controversial ingredients, including aluminum salts, formaldehyde, mercury (thimerosal), and polysorbate 80. More troubling is the moral dimension: certain vaccines—including those for rubella, chickenpox, and hepatitis A—are produced using cell lines derived from aborted human fetuses. For Christians, this is a matter of profound moral conscience. Using tissue derived from the intentional destruction of human life is an affront to the dignity of the preborn and implicates the medical industry in the culture of death.
The media, echoing the narrative of Big Pharma, dismisses significant health risks by labeling all adverse events as ‘rare’ or ‘mild.’ Yet, adverse effects range from common inflammation to catastrophic, life-altering injuries. The ‘safety’ narrative pushed by the state relies on the false assumption that benefits inherently outweigh risks for every person. True health policy must respect the right of the individual to weigh those risks themselves, free from government coercion and the threat of exclusion from society.
Big Government Tyranny
Think about the sheer despotism of this mandate. The Amish operate one-room, farmstead schoolhouses serving tight-knit, isolated Christian communities—productive people who have lived in good faith for two hundred years. The state’s message to these parents is unmistakable: bow the knee to Caesar, or we will bankrupt your community and seize your land.
First Liberty Institute, representing these families and schools, has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after the liberal Second Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly refused to protect their First Amendment rights. As First Liberty correctly points out, if the high court does not act, these families will have no choice but to pack their wagons and flee the state entirely to escape government persecution.
Forced migration of religious minorities was supposed to be a relic of Old World tyranny. It was the very evil our Founding Fathers sought to prevent when they framed the Bill of Rights and enshrined religious liberty as our first and most fundamental freedom.
Scripture reminds us in 1 Timothy 2:2 to pray for our leaders so that we ‘may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.’ But radical ideologues cannot tolerate anyone leading a godly life outside their sphere of control. From Albany to Springfield, the secular state demands total conformity. They are not content with merely running public schools as indoctrination centers; they insist on controlling your private faith, your church, your associations, and your medical decisions.
The assault on the Amish should be a wake-up call to every Christian in America. If the government possesses the tyrannical power to crush a peaceful, rural community of believers over their deeply held religious convictions, no one’s religious freedom is safe.
We must pray that the U.S. Supreme Court takes up this case and firmly reminds the State of New York that the state is not God, and the rights of conscience are non-negotiable.
Yet prayer cannot be an excuse for inaction. Our parental rights and religious liberties will not defend themselves. Tyrants are relentless in their quest to expand the authority of the state and diminish our God-given freedoms. In addition to our prayers, we must engage boldly in every political cycle, confront policy makers directly, and relentlessly hold them accountable. If we fail to stand today for our neighbors’ liberties, tomorrow there will be no one left to stand for ours.
