"Well, that's not even a REAL religion!"

As a teenager, I went to the Harrisburg Farm Show Arena with friends
from school. At some point, a number of police officers gathered around
a few Hare Krishna members who were in the arena offering LPs for a
donation.

I had to laugh at the sales pitch they were offering though. It looked
like they only had one record album, but I heard them start their
conversations off the same way with a number of farm show attendees,
"Say, what kind of music do you like?" If the person said country and
western then the Krishna member would exclaim, "THIS is the BEST
country and western music you'd EVER wanna hear!" Likewise if the
person replied Jazz or Heavy Metal, etc. The album would then become
the BEST EVER of that particular form of music.

Long story longer... the police approached the religious pitchmen and
"discussed" their sales practices as well as their chosen religion. I
heard the one officer cry, "Well, that's not even a REAL religion!"

Really? I'd tend to disagree.

I was baptised in a creek a million years (or so it seems) ago.
Christian faith. But I've got my own perspective on religion. And that
perspective is apparently much more accepting of the record salesmen of
this world. I believe that perspective would also be much more
accepting of (former) hospital worker, 24-year-old Sarah Yule whose
story is told in the following news article...

Fired woman claims piercings part of religion
Ex-hospital worker a member of Church of Body Modification
By BILL LAMBDIN

A Waterford woman was fired from her hospital job Wednesday in a
dispute over body piercings.

She says normal hospital prohibitions should not apply because the body
modification is part of her religion.

If 24-year-old Sarah Yule carries through with her plan to get a lawyer
and sue, it will be interesting to see whether a court considers this a
religious dispute or an employment matter. That decision will probably
determine the outcome.

Until Wednesday morning, Yule worked as emergency room receptionist at
St. Mary's Hospital in Troy.

"I was offered other options, but they weren't with my religion,"
Yule said of her firing.

Yule has a small metal piercing in her nose and a dark ring through the
middle of her lower lip.

The hospital refused to comment on her specific personnel issue.
However, they quoted its employee policy that "piercings are not
appropriate in a health care environment, but that piercings based on
cultural or religious beliefs will be considered acceptable unless they
interfere with the safe provision of patient care or in carrying out
the duties of the associate's job."

Yule says she joined the Church of Body Modification about a year and a
half ago. You'll find it on the Web. It claims chapters in Virginia and
Kentucky.

None of us are in a position to assess the sincerity of another's
religious beliefs. In Yule's case, she says she began body piercings
years before she became a member of the Church of Body Modification.

"It's not a physical church. It's more a belief system. It's a belief
that my body is my temple. It's my own and I do with it what I like. I
don't let others dictate how my body is going to be modified," she
explained.

It's not known whether the hospital questions the sincerity of
Yule's piercing religion or whether it fired her because it felt the
piercings interfered with carrying out her job. Yule says she did her
job very well. Hospital representatives aren't talking.

Yule plans to find another job in a more piercing-friendly environment.

New York is an at-will employment state, which means you can be fired
for almost any reason unless you have union or civil service
protection-neither of which Yule has.

But legitimate religious belief does carry certain job protections.
That would be up to a court to determine.
/article

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/