Religious Rights in the Workplace
By Mathew D. Staver, Esq.
Copyright © 2000
By Mathew D. Staver, Esq.
Copyright © 2000
Federal law, commonly referred to as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Title VII,(1) prohibits most employers(2) and unions(3) from discriminating against their employees on the basis of religion.(4) Title VII applies to any employer having fifteen or more employees for each working day in each of the twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.(5) Other state or local laws may also prevent discrimination on the basis of religion and such laws may apply to employers with less than fifteen employees.(6)
Title VII states as follows:
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer --
(1) To fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or
(2) To limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.(7)
Title VII then defines "religion" as follows:
The term "religion" includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that he is unable to reasonably accommodate an employee's or prospective employee's religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business.(8)
Under Title VII, an employer is required to accommodate an employee's sincerely held religious belief unless the employer can prove that the accommodation would result in an undue hardship to the employer's business.
Three Aspects of a Title VII Claim
The three aspects of a Title VII claim involve the employee's sincerely held religious belief, the employer's accommodation of that belief, and the employer's defense that it cannot accommodate the belief because the accommodation would result in an undue hardship.
Sincerely Held Religious Belief
Title VII prohibits discrimination based upon an employee's religious belief. This discrimination applies not only to hiring and firing but to all terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. Under Title VII the term "religion" is broadly defined to include "all aspects such as religious observance and practice, as well as belief."(9) The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (hereafter "EEOC"), defines religious practice to include "moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.
https://lc.org/religious-rights-in-the-workplace
STATE RIGHTS FOR EXAMPLE:
ARTICLE I.
BILL OF RIGHTS
SECTION I.
RIGHTS OF PERSONS
Paragraph I. Life, liberty, and property. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process of law.
Paragraph III. Freedom of conscience. Each person has the natural and inalienable right to worship God, each according to the dictates of that person's own conscience; and no human authority should, in any case, control or interfere with such right of conscience.
Paragraph IV. Religious opinions; freedom of religion. No inhabitant of this state shall be molested in person or property or be prohibited from holding any public office or trust on account of religious opinions; but the right of freedom of religion shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state.
https://law.justia.com/constitution/georgia/conart1.html
Right to Conscience in the Bible:
1 Timothy 1:5
New International Version
5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Acts 24:16
New International Version
16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
1 Timothy 3:9
New International Version
9 They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.
We shall not discriminate between people.
Galatians 3:28
New International Version
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
The use of face masks are still not agreed on scientifically and could actually be harmful.
In our systematic review, we identified 10 RCTs that reported estimates of the effectiveness of face masks in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the community from literature published during 1946–July 27, 2018. In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.51–1.20; I2 = 30%, p = 0.25) (Figure 2).
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
https://www.technocracy.news/masks-are-neither-effective-nor-safe-a-summary-of-the-science
Results: Where specific information was available, most studies reported about use of medical grade (surgical paper masks). In 3 RCTs, wearing a facemask may very slightly reduce the odds of developing ILI/respiratory symptoms, by around 6% (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.19, I2 29%, lowcertainty evidence). Greater effectiveness was suggested by observational studies. When both house-mates and an infected household member wore facemasks the odds of further household members becoming ill may be modestly reduced by around 19% (OR 0.81, 95%CI 0.48 to 1.37, I2 45%, 5 RCTs, low certainty evidence). The protective effect was very small if only the well person (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.68 to 1.28, I2 11%, 2 RCTs, low uncertainty evidence) or the infected person wore the facemask (meager certainty evidence).
—J Brainard, N Jones, et al. Facemasks and similar barriers to prevent respiratory illness such as COVID19: A rapid systematic review. MedRxiv. 2020 Apr 1.
(The most effective study showed that 81% to be at risk of contracting the virus if both house-mates and an infected household member wore face masks. Your risk is only reduced by 19%.
I truly believe to discriminate and strong-arm people to get vaccinated or be required to wear a mask that can be harmful or not even helpful is a violation of the right to conscience, the right to religion, and our liberty.
My conscience feels disgusted in seeing the trend of how unvaccinated people will be treated. It violates my liberty and the liberty of others. The Bible plainly supports the right to conscience and clear against) discrimination. The data isn't set in stone or even in agreement.
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