I have an easy solution:
Cultural clashes involving Islam have recently made headlines in Minnesota. At the airport, some Muslim taxi drivers refuse to transport passengers carrying alcohol; at Target stores, some Muslim cashiers won’t scan pork products. Now there’s a new point of friction: Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
Its officials say the college, a public institution, has a strict policy of not promoting religion or favoring one religion over another. “The Constitution prevents us from doing this in any form,” says Dianna Cusick, director of legal affairs.
But that seems to depend on your religion.
Where Christianity is concerned, the college goes to great lengths to avoid any hint of what the courts call “entanglement” or support of the church. Yet the college is planning to install facilities for Muslims to use in preparing for daily prayers, an apparent first at a public institution in Minnesota.
Separation of church and state is clearest at the college during the Christmas season. A memo from Cusick and President Phil Davis, dated Nov. 28, 2006, exhorted supervisors to banish any public display of holiday cheer: “As we head into the holiday season … “all public offices and areas should refrain from displays that may represent to our students, employees or the public that the college is promoting any particular religion.” Departments considering sending out holiday cards, the memo added, should avoid cards “that appear to promote any particular religious holiday.”
Here is an easy solution- tell them all to piss up a rope and pray on their own damned time. I have looked over the course descriptions on the MCTC website, and I did not find any mythology courses, so students will just have to look to God, Buddha, Allah on their own damned time, and quit trying to fight these stupid damned religious proxy wars on public property and in the media.
And if your god can not forgive you for not praying to him at a specific time in a specific manner, you have two choices- find another school, or find another God. There are plenty of both out there.
And one last thing- I don’t care who you are or what your religious beliefs are, I am sick of hearing about your God. Period.
Zombie Santa Claus
Ho ho ho! I am the only true God, you fuckers! How can you allow special privileges for Islamists while denying me a public forum? Fuck you, Minnesota!
Bubblegum Tate
Amen. (Har! Get it?)
mrmobi
Couldn’t have put it better myself, John. I lump these folks with the pharmacists who won’t fill prescriptions for “ethical” reasons.
Exactly right.
What’s the problem with practicing your religion and doing your job, they’re not mutually exclusive. If they are, change your job and quit pissing an moaning. What a bunch of crybabies!
mrmobi
You are my favorite Zombie.
Blue Neponset
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pork products.
ThymeZone
Hear, hear. And of course, just substitute “Republicans” for “students” and you can repeat the exhortation.
Apparently the students have learned from the Dobsonites.
Zombie Santa Claus
I better be. I’m the only one that gives you Playstation games instead of trying to eat your brains. Wait. That sentence doesn’t make any sense, does it? Let me try again:
I’m the only zombie that gives you Playstation games that eat your brain indirectly, instead of trying to eat your brains directly out of your skull. There. That’s a little bit more accurate.
BTW, Target and the cab companies should fire these motherfuckers. Either that, or I’m going to wait until I get hired at my next job to tell my boss that any form of labor is contrary to my religious principles.
Keith
My God has a better beard than your God.
Zombie Santa Claus
Ho ho ho! You flatter me!
Dreggas
Guck Fod!
cleek
don’t want to scan pork products? don’t work in a fucking grocery store.
Keith
Billy Gibbons? Is that you?
Jake
I’m still not clear on who asked for these facilities but the college is going to be sorry when all the religious groups start to whine.
In addition, I’ve seen guys praying to Mecca on the sidewalk. I take this as a sign that a devout Muslim (like a devout Christian, Jew etc, etc) doesn’t need a damn building to do his praying.
Dave
I have the same reaction when I hear about Christian pharmacists not wanting to hand out birth control. Find another profession if it’s getting in the way of your religion and leave the rest of us out of your “moral” battles.
mrmobi
Why didn’t I think of that?
Actually, the magnificent Kurt Vonnegut said something similar, “I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.”
RIP Kurt.
RandyH
I totally agree. Respecting people’s religious beliefs is great – on their own time. And if they’re expected to work on their Holy Day of the week, they’d better put on their “How can I help you” smile and get their asses to work. And sell the customer whatever they want to buy, regardless. If they should commit sins in the interest of keeping their fucking job in order to feed their fucking families, maybe they should pray for forgiveness on their own time as well. Their god will just have to understand.
John Cole
We covered the pharmacy story here and here.
Cromagnon
Amen
sidereal
Now, I’m all for burning lazy people on a pyre, but it isn’t unheard of for employers to make scheduling accommodations for whatever reason — medical, family requirements, religion, etc. And it’s not out of line for an employee to request one. But of course 1) the employer can refuse, in which case you’re SOL, and 2) there’s no reason to place religion on any sort of special pedestal distinct from any other reason that you might not be able to work on Saturdays.
Zombie Santa Claus
Yeah, he was a good guy. Editor-in-chief of In These Times, don’t you know.
Kimmitt
I’m all about reasonable accomodations — work schedules around a couple of high holy days, let some folks do facial hair or turbans when not strictly part of the dress code, let pharmacists discreetly duck out when they’re asked to fill prescriptions they don’t agree with.
But at the end of the day, this is a secular country, and those who live here must accept that.
Jack Roy
Sorry, John, but David Ortiz is God, he’s not going anywhere, and you’re going to hear about him plenty. Nothing we can do, hands tied, etc.
grumpy realist
Interesting case of blowback. Anyone interested in rustling up one of those Pharmacist-for-Life types and asking what he thinks about this usage of religious freedom?
What goes around comes around. Idiots.
merlallen
I’m a hotel night auditor, but I found a religion that won’t allow me to work at night. Sweet, now I can stay home and they’ll just deposit my paycheck. YAY!!!1
crg
Kersten’s more than a little crazy, and she’s definitely got an agenda to push. I’d cross-check anything you see under her byline, especially anything involving religion.
Nylund
And what’s with people wanting a day off from work for Christmas without giving up a vacation day?! Celebrate your Messiah’s birth on your own damn time.
J. Michael Neal
Between Katherine Kersten, and Minneapolis Community and Technical College, I think I’m rooting for a plague. Kersten is a dishonest moron, but MCTC is … well, not a dishonest moron, but at least run by them. I attended for a year, and it was, without a doubt, the most useless educational institution I’ve ever had interaction with, except perhaps my junior high school. Maybe the community college side was different, but the technical college side was worthless. My instructor for for the required class (for the degree I was shooting for) on the Windows operating system had no idea how to use DOS.
As for the Target thing, Target has taken exactly the right approach. Until it became an issue, they just ignored it; Islamic cashiers would just have someone come over and ring up the pork products. Since it became an issue, they have asked all of their employees if they won’t scan pork products, and moved them to positions where they won’t come in contact with them. Problem solved. There are still whiners on both sides, and more on the side who wants the cashiers fired, but as a practical matter, it’s done.