Tim Hill, a host of “The Game” show on 107.5 FM in Columbia, South Carolina, is complaining that he was fired by Cumulus Media, the company that owns the station, after he refused to comply with its vaccine mandate.
“Never thought it would come to this and am pretty sad,” Hill said in a video posted to his Twitter account. “It was something I feel like I needed to stand up for, I believed in sincerely. I would never tell anyone they had to be vaccinated or unvaccinated. I feel like this is a very personal choice.”
An update pic.twitter.com/tUbEyvTyjE
— Tim Hill (@TimHillUFA) October 11, 2021
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“If you have a sincerely held religious belief, then it becomes a matter of reasonable accommodation,” Hill told reporters. “They said they couldn’t reasonably accommodate me. I offered to wear a mask or do the show from where our producer does it, or from home. They thought none of that was reasonable.”
There is nothing in the Bible that speaks out against vaccines, though some Catholics have resisted the Covid-19 vaccine on the grounds that it is “mark of the beast” in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.
According to John Evans, a professor of sociology and religious studies at the University of California, San Diego, this belief ultimately comes down to a lack of trust in the government and the medical field.
“[Former President] Donald Trump tapped into American populism, and with that comes the disbelief of experts,” Evans told USA TODAY. “There is a small group of people who believe in ‘the mark of the beast,’ and I think what’s driving that thought process is starting with various concerns about receiving the coronavirus vaccine that are not specifically religious.”
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
