Quote of the day.

[theweaselking]

Orthodox Jew osewalrus takes on "right of conscience":

God doesn't always make it easy for you. Sometimes, to stay good with God, you gotta make some sacrifices. That means not doing what you really want, puting up with what you don't like, etc. etc.

If performing certain tasks in your job are abhorent to you, then chose another job. I'm sorry. At the least, you need to declare in advance your religious needs and have a frank discussion with your employer about whether the employer can or cannot accomodate you. If the employer cannot accomodate you, then sorry. You chose between your religious principles and keeping your job.

Word. Read the whole thing.

Comments

[itlandm.livejournal.com]

A beautiful statement. I could hardly agree more.

To not be up front about one's religion is swindling, which is not endorsed by any contemporary religion except possibly Satanism (and I'm not even sure about that). If my religion means that I can do less of one thing and/or more of another, it should go without saying that I tell this before I show up at work the first day.

But likewise an employer has at least a moral duty to be honest when hiring people. They may be quitting an existing job or turning down other offers to work for you. If you have tasks that you know are incompatible with the religion of a prospective employee, you should say so at the outset, not just decide to assign them that task one day when you are in a crappy mood and feel the need to fire someone.

If people would just show basic honesty - roughly the same level they'd wish other showed them - then the problem would largely evaporate.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

If you have tasks that you know are incompatible with the religion of a prospective employee,

I think that most employers (at least in the U.S.) are (and should be) reluctant to request that prospective hires divulge their religious affiliations as a precondition to hiring. Some employers are barred from doing so by law; for others, it is just a Very Bad Idea. Therefore, the best an employer can do is to be clear about what the job requirements are; it is incumbent on the prospective employee to determine if any of those requirements cannot be fulfilled without violating his or her religious convictions.

[itlandm.livejournal.com]

I agree. Obviously if the prospective employee has not made it clear that he or she is differently abled, it is not incumbent upon the employer to hazard guesses.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

My employer does this. It's a Christian university and reserves the right to hire Christians to certain positions.

Mine is not one of them. I never revealed my affiliation during the interview, but I read the job description VERY carefully, and they made very sure I understood that I didn't need to be a Christian of any stripe in order to work there. I appreciated that; there are other universities around here which require employees to sign a statement of faith as a condition of hire, and I wasn't going to do that.

I still don't know what, if anything, anyone I work with knows about my practice. It's never come up, and it shouldn't: it has zero impact on my job.

A couple of professors in the religion department put it this way: when their students ask them what their beliefs are, they respond that that's immaterial to the class: they're studying religion, not faith, and therefore their personal beliefs are irrelevant. I think this is an excellent way of handling it.

To not be up front about one's religion is swindling, which is not endorsed by any contemporary religion except possibly Satanism (and I'm not even sure about that). If my religion means that I can do less of one thing and/or more of another, it should go without saying that I tell this before I show up at work the first day.

Personally I wouldn't take a job that would require this of me, because that potentially makes my religion my employer's business, and I have a problem with that. That's why I was so careful about taking my job. (Why did I consider it at all? Because it's a really good school, the position has great potential for professional development, and the market for my field is extremely competitive in this area.)