I’ve got a piece up today at The
Week about
several new “religious freedom” lawsuits and the
nonsensical battle for faux-rights that’s been heating up in 2014.
One of these cases involves U.S. Bank teller Polly Neace, who was
fired after continuing to tell customers “have a blessed day” after
the bank asked her to stop. “I was upset with the fact they were
stifling me and not allowing me to act on my beliefs,”
she told a
local news station. She’s now suing for employment
discrimination.
Neace’s case is among a crop of current religious-freedom
lawsuits more predicated on wringing special protections and
allowances from the state than legit struggle for freedom from
religious persecution or discrimination. A version of this has been
popular on all sides of late. From my piece at The
Week:
Everyone’s fighting not for actual access to things — wedding
photographs, emergency contraception, nursing jobs — but for
symbolic state sanctioning of their access, without compromise.
It’s tedious, this balancing of faux-rights. Freedom of religion
simply cannot mean the right to behave in any manner so long as
it’s religiously motivated and still gain or retain a job. And
luckily, freedom of association (and the free market) means that
those devout believers who can’t bear not to tell every passerby
they’re blessed can seek out a job where this is appreciated. A
nurse vehemently opposed to contraception could go into any health
care arena other than reproductive medicine. A woman who resents
her employer’s exclusion of birth-control coverage can seek more
liberal pastures elsewhere. You have to give a little, take a
little, as the great Jimmy Durante says.
Go here to
read the whole thing.
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