Religious Restrictions and the Right to Work–and this is a rant!

Apparently we have a Muslim woman who has been suspended from her job as a flight attendant for refusing to serve alcohol to the passengers who ordered it.

Her comment:

“What this case comes down to is no one should have to choose between their career and religion and it’s incumbent upon employers to provide a safe environment where employees can feel they can practice their religion freely,” Masri told CNN.

The difference between her and this silly Kim Davis stuff that has candidates for the President of the US openly standing in defiance of a basic element of our freedom, i.e., the first amendment to the Constitution: NONE. Not one bit.

Good God almighty: is this really what we are about, both as a country and as a people of faith? I am beyond disgusted at the way the religious right continually twists what it means to be Christian. The extremist Muslim world has also shown way too often how far they are willing to go to destroy any who don’t agree with them. This is beyond sick.

As for this Muslim woman who refuses to do her job by laying more duties on her co-workers, I say this:

Feel free to practice your religion, but do not make flying even more stressful than it already is by refusing, in the name of Allah, to offer what little service airline attendants already offer in our current travel environment.

In other words, if you feel your religious faith restricts your activities in the workplace, then, and this is not exactly rocket science, GO TO WORK SOMEPLACE ELSE!

And yes, I am shouting.

Life is tough enough without consumers and citizens having to decide if a legal and reasonable request will in some way violate the religious beliefs of the government or corporate employee.

My faith as a Christian does indeed place significant restrictions on my behavior. I may not, in the name of Jesus, do the following things:

• Hate my enemy
• Lie
• Judge others
• Dishonor my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit
• Refuse to do good to those who hate, despise and revile me
• Treat others in ways I hate to be treated myself
• Block anyone, especially children, from finding Jesus
• Mistreat the outcast of society, i.e., the widows, orphans, undocumented immigrants (sojourners)

So I cannot take a job as a torturer of other human beings.

I cannot take on work that attempts to shoot those who might seek to cross over the borders to a land that purports to welcome the stranger with these words:

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

I cannot take a job that insists I manhandle the innocent.

I cannot take a job that would lead me to use my physical body in an unholy way.

There are lots of jobs I cannot do and keep my faith. But those restrictions do not now and never have meant that I could not work and at the same time practice my faith. They just mean that I need to act like an adult in both workplace and faith settings.

Right now, I am seriously wondering if the idea of “acting like and adult” has simply become passé in the world of self-indulgence and religious extremism.

Let’s all just grow up.