Haven’t posted a rant lately. So, here’s my thoughts on this:
People have their religious beliefs. They can pick and choose from their lists of man-made stone-age rules which ones they think their made-up stone-age gods still consider important or not. And I will be among those who’ll say those choices and rules are stupid and wrong, and those gods non-existent. But it’s not illegal to have ridiculous beliefs. So fine, have your beliefs.
BUT...
When you have a non-church, non-religious job—one that is not paid for by religious groups—and ESPECIALLY a publicly-funded job... Well, first of all, don’t take a job that conflicts with your closely held beliefs. And second, if, once you have that job, you discover that, or things change so that, your beliefs are now in conflict with your ability to do that job, then it’s on you to choose between the two: your job or your belief. There are other jobs; there are also other beliefs. That’s it. Simple. Choose.
Now, since it’s legal to hold offensive, stone-age beliefs, then I suppose it’s reasonable to let someone backing out of a job have a different job, perhaps in the same department, if it’s available and if that person is qualified, etc. But this “I’m not going to do my job for SOME people because they don’t live the way I think they ought to” thing is NONSENSE. If you want to hold a belief, fine. But then you have to take the consequences. So if these magistrates, etc, are not doing their jobs, then fine them, fire them, publicly shame them...whatever the appropriate punishment is.
