A question of authority over an individual’s physical body

Jessica Hockett, PhD

When state & local governments across the U.S. issued mask mandates in the name of stopping COVID-19, many religious leaders and institutions consented, with little serious study of relevant theological issues or questions. 

As more people have “woken up” to the inefficacy of masks against respiratory viruses, I’ve noticed that much confusion remains over whether there are religious arguments to be made against persistent mandates. 

For instance, Grace (@graceisforyou on Twitter) describes a Christian school in a mandate state that require adults and children to cover their faces due to the leaders’ interpretation of when to submit to governing authorities (e.g., Romans 13).

Christians, please help me out with a scenario:

You live in a state that still has an “emergency” mask mandate. Children are still required to wear cloth masks at school. The school’s leaders know the data – cloth masks are ineffective at preventing the transmission of Covid.

— Grace 🌾 (@graceisforyou) January 23, 2022

They also recognize that cloth masks have negative impacts on children’s development, mental health, and ability to learn. But they have interpreted Scripture about submission to authorities to mean that as long as there is a state mandate, the righteous thing is to obey it.

— Grace 🌾 (@graceisforyou) January 23, 2022

The religious objections we submitted in August 2021 to the administration of our son’s private high school, and to the board of our daughter’s public school, address the issue from a different perspective. Like Owen Strachan did so well in his podcast episode on this subject, we rooted our position not in the question, “Should we obey the government’s order to mask?” but “Biblically-speaking who has authority over an individual’s physical body?” 

Even if you disagree with what we’ve said, I hope the example makes clear that lawful, reasonable religious objections to masking do exist for others, if not for you.

(FYI, the private school granted the objection; we continue to challenge the public school board.)

Religious Objection to Mandated Masking

The Illinois school code statute we referenced is here.

See also my article on masks as an aspect of dress code, under Illinois law.