Two Nationals minor league coaches who were fired for refusing vaccine file complaints with EEOC

• Two ex-Nationals minor league coaches filed religious discrimination complaints against the club after they were fired over their refusal to get COVID-19 vaccines
• Larry Pardo, a rookie-level instructor, and Brad Holman, a pitching coordinator, filed the complaints with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission
• They were fired last week for refusing to comply with the Nats' vaccine mandate and now claim the club did not take their religious exemption request seriously
• Specifically, the two say the COVID-19 vaccines violate their religious beliefs because they are 'made from and/or tested on aborted fetal cells'
• Johnson & Johnson's vaccine uses cells replicated from aborted tissue, while Pfizer and Moderna made their vaccines by testing fetal tissue aborted in 1973
• In a statement, a team spokesperson said the club 'took every request very seriously and applied a rigorous and interactive process to each request'
• The Nationals were among the first MLB franchises to require vaccines for staff
• Team president Bob Boone quit earlier this year in opposition to the mandate

By ALEX RASKIN, SPORTS NEWS EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:00 BST, 21 September 2021 | UPDATED: 18:17 BST, 21 September 2021

Two former Washington Nationals coaches have filed religious discrimination complaints against the Major League club after they were fired over their refusal to get COVID-19 vaccines.

Larry Pardo, who coached the Nationals' rookie-level affiliate in the Florida Complex League, and Brad Holman, a minor-league pitching coordinator, both had their contracts terminated by the MLB club last week after refusing to comply with a vaccine mandate. They had worked with the franchise since 2018.

In response to their dismissals, the two filed complaints with the United States Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) on Friday. The filings are expected to be the first step in a federal lawsuit against the club, attorney Alexander Fox told DailyMail.com.

Pardo, a 55-year-old Catholic, and Holman, a 53-year-old Evangelical Christian, claim the Nationals violated 'their rights to free expression and observation of their sincerely held religious beliefs.'

Specifically, the two say the COVID-19 vaccines conflict with their religious beliefs because they are 'made from and/or tested on aborted fetal cells.'

'Larry and Brad made this decision after many hours of prayer,' Fox wrote in a press release provided to DailyMail.com. 'They could not and will not choose to take the vaccines even if it costs them their jobs, which it ultimately did.

'They were wrongfully terminated after expressing their sincerely held religious beliefs and being denied a proper accommodation as required under federal law.'

Johnson & Johnson's vaccine uses cells replicated from aborted tissue, while Pfizer and Moderna made their vaccines by testing fetal tissue aborted in 1973, according to Los Angeles County health officials.

In their press release, Pardo and Holman add that the Nationals 'pretended to offer' them a chance to demonstrate why they should be exempt from getting the vaccine, but rejected the request within 36 hours.

They also stressed that they've been 'tested for COVID repeatedly (up to 3 times per week)' and 'have always followed the safety protocols laid out by the Club.'

The team defended its decision.

'While we are not going to comment on specific exemptions, we took every request very seriously and applied a rigorous and interactive process to each request as is prescribed by applicable law,' a Nationals spokesperson told the Miami Herald.

The Nationals were among the first MLB franchises to require employees to get the vaccine or offer a valid exemption, and team president and former All-Star catcher Bob Boone resigned earlier this year in opposition to the mandate.