Cum On Feel the Noiz, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld
February 26, 2016 Victor El-Khouri 0 Comments
Religious Freedom is in the news. Again. So I’m going to talk about my religion, and then some others.
When I am lost in the gloom of winter, I like to remember that Spring is on the way. Already, the expensive restaurant up the street has tulips in their window, bursting up from bulbs forced in exquisite pottery. And soon (March 24) it will be Purim <https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/2016>.
Purim is great fun, definitely the most entertaining holiday on the Jewish calendar. It celebrates the triumph of the Jews found in the Book of Esther <http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5872-esther>. That story is only somewhat related to what’s fun about it. There are costumes,and there are cookies <http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/duff-goldman/hamentashen-recipe.html>. You are required to use a grogger <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8OucAlBdRM> whenever anyone mentions the name of a bad guy.
In Israel during Purim, you see everyone in costume. Little kids, of course, but also adults. Adults on the street, or even at work. It’s like the entire country is San Diego Comic-Con.
Anyway, I bring this up, not to passive-aggressively ask for hamentashen (although if you decide to send me any, I like apricot and poppy-seed), but to talk about how all of us, whatever our beliefs, can do some pretty bizarre things.
In almost every case, these things, when applied to our own behavior, are harmless. If I want to keep kosher, or tithe, or wear magic underwear, that makes no difference whatsoever to your life. I can religiously freedom to my heart’s content.
The problems arise when I think my religious freedom requires you to play along, too.
Case in point: Kansas passed a so-called “religious freedom law” a few years back to protect the sanctity of bakers who didn’t want to sell wedding cakes to gay people (or some such nonsense). It was really really really important for the state’s Christians, a persecuted 80 percent of the population, to be able to use their businesses to bully other groups.
However …
As so often happens, there were unintended consequences. In this case, Muslim workers, mostly Somali immigrants, are suing their employer for firing them when they took time to pray during their shifts.
Muslims are required to pray five times a day <muslims required to pray 5 times a day>. Each prayer takes five to ten minutes. Big whoop. Smokers take more breaks.
Do we think these five breaks would be a problem for any other group? Or do we think there is something else special about them?
It thrills me to see American Muslims defending themselves using the tools designed to bully non-Christians against these same bullies.
It also thrills me to see different segments of right-wing interest groups fall on different sides of the issue. Social conservatives want to enact these laws, but free-market corporatists oppose them. Businesses want to attract the best people for jobs, and to pay them the least amount the market will bear. To do this, they need the largest possible pool of applicants. Restricting the rights of some of those applicants because of the religious beliefs of the social conservatives, no matter how common, limits the pool, and raises the salary demands of those who qualify.
It will be interesting to see who wins out, God or Mammon.
As for me, I’m going to start carrying a grogger, just in case I run into Rence Priebus.
Media Goddess Martha Thomases doesn’t really pray, but she does knit, which is sort of the same thing.