I don't normally care to comment on items like this, but as this sort of thing is becoming a pattern, I think I will comment today.
In this story, a Metro Transit bus driver has been allowed to avoid driving buses that feature ads from Lavender Magazine, a local magazine which caters to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities of the Twin Cites area.
My wife and I have discussed this, as well as the recent refusal of Muslim taxi drivers to carry passengers who have alcohol on board, and the all-too prevalent stories of fundamentalist pharmacists refusing to assist customers who have need for contraception.
My take on this issue is the following:
I think these individuals who are making these choices need to reexamine their consciences and think about the lines of work that they are in. Perhaps they are all being way too sensitive and are not in the correct lines of work. They are proselytizing on the company's time.
I know that if there is something I am not comfortable with on a job that is not a legal issue and bothers me that much, I will need to work doing something else rather than ask my job to accomodate me. Isn't that fair?
Tag: fundamentalism
4 comments:
Interesting that you tagged this under fundamentalism, Joe.
While the connection is obvious, I have always thought of this sort of pandering as liberalism run amok. After all, it tends to be the liberal -- ummm, I don't want to say 'agenda' but I can't think of a better word -- to push for individual protections whether work place safety, or civili rights or freedom of religion...
In any case, I agree with you. I want to tell people like that to 'just get over it, already!':-)
tp
Hey tp,
:0 I think you have a point, that it is a sort of liberalism run amok. I didn't think that it would lead to this sort of situation, that it is supporting a type of fundamentalism.
I think this issue is interesting and will create lively, and hopefully, civil discussion. My wife and I discussed this more this morning, and I was giving it more reflection since I posted it.
I think that if companies and workers come to a compromise regarding these issues, as long as no civil rights are violated, this is okay.
But my wife pointed out that the people who want these rights, who are of a fundamentalist mindset, are able to exercise these rights because America is based on secular laws.
I hope it is more of a gentle juxtaposition rather than a clash!
I think a clash may better describe it in the end. After all, this is the same bizarreness that allows Christian Fundamanetalists to wail about how 'persecuted' they are in the US.
Puh-lease!
tp
I know. I just hope to poke a hole in this crappy thing that is the culture war. (I totally agree that the persecution complex is so played out.)
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