By now you have all heard about the Lobby of Hobby and its victory in the highest court in the land. (I actually think these old geezers must actually be high given some of their rulings recently) In case you have been hiding under a rock, put quite simply the SCOTUS ruled that Hobby Lobby has the right to not provide certain forms of birth control based on their own personal religious beliefs. Never mind that a healthy chunk of their employees do not follow the company's beliefs, the Chain still has the right to deny services to these employees. In short, the Chain is forcing its employees to follow certain tenets of the Chain's faith.
Now for the record, let me state that I am okay with this action. Hobby Lobby has the right to fun their business the way they see fit. The employees thereof have the choice of following company policies or finding employment You won't find many companies that don't have their own specific code of conduct and rules that all employees must live by. You don't have to like them but you do have to follow them to work there.
No, my little ramble here is based off of just how much a slippery slope it is when a branch of the Federal Government decides that a public company has the right to enforce its religious beliefs on everyone who works there. First it is Hobby Lobby and Birth Control, but what happens next? What happens when a Non-Christian store decides that its Christian Employees must follow its religious laws?
The two articles above are both Satire and should not be taken seriously. (They are also a pretty funny read especially the Little Caesars tossing its employees to the lions.) However, they illustrate in the absurdity the problems that can be caused by the SCOTUS ruling. I have found that Christians, especially White Christians are okay with the Fed making rulings that effect everyone's rights just so long as those rulings are favorable to Christians. What happens when the same rules start being applied to other faiths? Under the SCOTUS ruling, a Muslim based business would be well within their legal rights to require its associates to dress in what the Religion demands. Heck it could even demand that all employees refrain from eating pork products during their meals.
See despite what so many people seem to want to think, a SCOTUS ruling on religious rights doesn't just affect the religion you like, but ALL religions. If a Christian Business can require its employees to be a certain way than a Pastafaran Business will be well within its rights to demand that everyone wear a colander on their head.
So you see, we are facing a slippery slope and I suspect that when the slide starts, a whole lot of people won't like where it ends up.
End of Rant
No comments:
Post a Comment