Yes… I know… in the West we have constitutional protections against this kind of unreasonableness… but bear with me in a hypothetical.
Tomorrow, the parameters of your employment will have changed.
You will now be expected to participate, regularly, in a ritual you find offensive to your religious sensibilities.
Maybe it’ll be compelled to participate in a company prayer to a creed you reject. Maybe you’ll be expected to regularly eat food that you believe is ritually unclean. Maybe you’ll be asked to have surgery done that you wouldn’t contemplate otherwise. Maybe you’ll be asked to wear something, or not wear something, or dress a certain way.
What it is… is academic… what’s important is that it offends your religious sensibilities… and it won’t stop happening.
It will further be made clear to you “if you don’t do this, your employment here… is at an end. You’ll be considered to have violated the terms of your employment contract, so not entitled to employment insurance, or other compensation.”
If your employment was on the line, would you engage in behaviour offensive to your religious sensibilities, or quit?
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This is not entirely a question without precedent: the persecutions of Decius required Christians to participate in sacrifices to pagan gods, or face persecution by the State. This split the Christian communities of Africa and Italy, into those who lapsed… and sought readmission… and those who stayed true to their beliefs.
Christian persecutors, in turn, have insisted on those of other faiths being properly baptized, or regular participants in communion… and I’m sure the trail goes on.
What really prompts this question though is… so far, as vaccine mandates are enforced… only about 1% of people are prepared to quit their jobs. Although to hear their vaccine refusal logic prior to the choice… you’d think it would be a much larger minority.
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So: If your employment was on the line, would you engage in behaviour offensive to your religious sensibilities, or quit?
Sir Tainley