With 25 years of experience under his belt, a registered nurse from Langhorne, Pennsylvania, lost his job at a Catholic hospital in early December because he refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Michael Murray explained during an interview this week with Faithwire that he was terminated from his role at St. Mary’s Medical Center — a part of Trinity Health — on Dec. 6 after seeking a religious exemption due to the fact that he had already had and recovered from a bout of COVID-19 in November of last year.
Daily News. Christian Views. Listen and SUBSCRIBE to our PODCAST:
As a result of his previous infection, Murray said, he had natural, “God-given” immunity and forced vaccination was “a violation of my conscience and, really, basic common sense.”
”I refused to get vaccinated and tried to reason with them — I tried to apply for a religious exemption, because it is legitimately a violation of my conscience,” the nurse said. “I didn’t want to go with what I thought was mob thinking, groupthink, and over-simplification by the CDC.”
Another eyebrow-raising detail of the hospital’s rejection of Murray’s religious exemption request — and subsequent appeal — is the fact that he is the pastor of a small, nearby congregation. While others far less devout than him were granted their requests, Murray’s was denied.
Faithwire has reached out to Trinity Health a couple times. If a representative responds with a statement, this story will be updated to include their remarks.
”Everybody knew I was a pastor and everybody knew I was denied my religious exemption and other people, other co-workers that really no one would think had any religious background at all, they were given their religious exemption,” Murray explained. “So it was just very random and arbitrary and weird.”
Like TV host Jedediah Bila recently told Faithwire, Murray argued he has robust immunity from prior infection.
Murray, who first wrote about his termination in a Facebook post, is a husband and father of seven children, including one in college and one 13-year-old living at home. His work at St. Mary’s served as the family’s primary income for nearly a decade.
What’s next?
Despite the unexpected turn of events, Murray told Faithwire he is trusting God has a plan.
“I trust that the Lord will provide,” he said. “I have been trying to pursue legal action for a wrongful termination lawsuit, but the few lawyers I have contacted have not been interested in taking my case. So I am inquiring about some other lawyers.”
The veteran nurse went on to say he “feels deeply” for those who are in similar situations to him.
”I understand their plight,” Murray said. “And I understand many people with my views about this just caved in and went ahead and got the [vaccine] and I don’t fault them too much for that. Everyone’s telling them that it’s OK and, for most people, I don’t think it does cause any physical harm, for the vast majority of people. … But it’s always good advice to trust in the Lord.”
”If it is a violation of your conscience and you want to stand up for it,” he added, “we should trust in the Lord and God is faithful to provide for us.”
***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***