The Justice Dept. is intervening in a case of a Muslim teacher outside Chicago who quit her job because her school would not let her take 3 weeks off at the end of the semester to go to Mecca. The story is here.
The suit argued that the district violated the Civil Rights Act by failing to accommodate Khan’s religious beliefs. By “compelling” Khan to choose between her job and religion, the lawsuit says, the district forced her discharge. The government is seeking back pay, damages and reinstatement for Khan, and a court order requiring Berkeley schools to find ways to accommodate religious practices.
By forbidding the school from compelling Khan to choose between her job and her religious belief, the Justice Department is compelling people like me (atheists) to choose between the worldview we have (materialism) and the worldview which we’d need to fake (theism) in order to get a 3 week leave of absence.
But maybe the Justice Department only rewards true believers – would they back me up if I took 3 weeks off to go on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem with my Church, but then found me estranged from my Church group and drinking in bar in Las Vegas after 2.5 weeks?
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