The god memo
And just in time for the weekend – Sessions issues a heap of theocratic guidance for federal agencies. Amen, Master.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued sweeping guidance to executive branch agencies Friday on the Justice Department’s interpretation of how the government should respect religious freedom, triggering an immediate backlash from civil liberties groups who asserted the nation’s top law enforcement officer was trying to offer a license for discrimination.
In a memorandum titled “Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty,” Sessions articulated 20 sweeping principles about religious freedom and what that means for the U.S. government — among them that freedom of religion extends to people and organizations; that religious employers are allowed to hire only those whose conduct is consistent with their beliefs; and that grants can’t require religious organizations to change their character.
…
“Except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,” Sessions wrote. “Therefore, to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be reasonably accommodated in all government activity, including employment, contracting, and programming.”
Bollocks. To a great many people, “living out her/his faith” means treating men as superior & dominant and women as inferior & subordinate. It means treating children as needing regular beatings to teach them how to be “good” (according to a narrow pinched religious idea of “good”). It means treating lesbians and gays as wicked outcast demons. It can mean treating people who follow rival religions as enemies.
Of course it can also mean compassion, generosity, altruism – but then that kind of thing is not likely to be in tension with laws about equal treatment and the like, is it. It’s the evil stuff they have to protect.
And civil liberties groups said there could be other effects. The principle allowing religious employers to hire only those whose conduct is consistent with their beliefs, for example, might allow a religious school to fire a teacher who had a child out of wedlock or a man who wed another man, said Louise Melling, deputy legal director at the ACLU.
“It is countenancing discrimination,” Melling said. “It is countenancing exercises of faith in a way that will harm other individuals.”
That’s why they like it. The chance to harm other individuals is the point.
I wonder how fast he’ll backpedal when the first Christian gets fired for behaviour that offends the sincere beliefs of a muslim employer?
To be fair, the only muslim president of a US company that I know personally is very careful to make all hirings equitable. All applications for jobs are handed to someone otherwise not involved in the hiring process, who redacts all identifying features before handing them on to the person actually doing the hiring. With the result that they have a highly diverse workforce, the members of whom don’t get to exercise prejudices brought in from the outside world, because they know that they were all hired on merit.
Never mind Muslims. I’ll be waiting for a Christian employer to fire someone for adultery.
Or for getting a divorce.
Or for not observing the sabbath.
Or for eating shellfish.
Or for marrying someone of the wrong faith.
Or for having (and not condemning) a gay child.
Or for being a woman (who should, of course, be at home)
Or if you’re a (certain variety of strict) Muslim employer, for drinking alcohol, not having a beard, not being Muslim…
Or for wearing a cross with a little bloke on it.
Or for wearing a cross with no little bloke on it.
Whatever, I guess a lot of atheists are fucked.
So, will it be permissible to fire anyone who doesn’t wear a colander on their head?
Or who doesn’t talk like a pirate on talk like a pirate day?
I’ve worked for too many religious employers in my day; even without these broad new rights, they know how to make you uncomfortable, and how to coerce people to pray for pay.
Rrr!
Or having a tattoo.
Or wearing clothing of mixed fabrics.