North American Division Position on Requests for Religious Exemptions to Vaccine Requirements
Voted recommendations to NAD Administration regarding requests for religious exemptions to vaccine requirements:
The North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD) is committed to sharing hope and wholeness through the healing ministry of Christ by promoting the Church’s historic health message. This includes caring for our own bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19,20) and ministering to the health of others within our community (Isaiah 58).
In line with this commitment, the NAD fully supports the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s statement encouraging “responsible immunization/vaccination,” and as such has “no religious or faith-based reason not to encourage [its] adherents to responsibly participate in protective and preventive immunization programs.”
While the Church’s statement recognizes it is “not the conscience of the individual church member, and recognize[s] individual choices,” the choice not to be vaccinated is not based on Seventh-day Adventist Church teachings or doctrine. For this reason, the Adventist church in North America does not provide Church-endorsed vaccine exemption request letters.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church respects convictions of conscience. While the NAD cannot endorse that vaccine refusal represents Adventist teachings, your local Union Public Affairs and Religious Liberty ministry is available to advise you in writing your own letter if you choose to pursue an individual vaccine exemption.