More Free?
The Revealer has a article examining the pros and cons of The Workplace Religious Freedom Act a bill that would increase the accommodations related to religious beliefs and practices that employers must make for their employees (time-off for holidays and clothing mostly). The ACLU opposes this act due to the nebulous “accommodation of ‘other practices’ involved with the employee’s observance of their religion” and the potential for abuse. What most interested me was the comment by Jeff Wilson who points out that these new rights would most likely only benefit the conservative and mainstream.
“Somehow I suspect that more sympathy will be shown toward conservative mainstream religionists who don’t wish to provide services to or work with people who offend theirsensibilitiess, while Neo-Pagans who wish to celebrate Beltane or Muslims who wish to perform salat will find it much harder going. And I can’t wait until someone from the Naturist Church of Universal Brotherhood starts trying to stand up for his new rights.” – Jeff Wilson
Which is why most pagans I meet have a hard time getting behind religious law-making (and activist) efforts, since usually “religious freedom” in these terms means more freedom for Christians (and occasionally the other monotheists) to do whatever they want while everyone else is left to battle it out in court.
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