Discriminating jobs

There is a court case coming where they will try and decide if it is constitutional for a marriage commissioner to denial service to a gay couple based on his/her religious belief. This is an interesting case for many reasons.

In the end civil marriage is a bunch of paper work before the government. After all, people will sign a legal contract about their possessions and (financial) obligations and the state will confer special status for visitation and other things. The state will not see if they love each other or ask them to swear to a deity. So the marriage commissioner is a specialized notary. This is the same as how a pharmacist is a knowledgeable pill dispenser who's only use above a machine is the (valuable!) ability to ask how the medication may be affected by other medication (I don't mean to trivialize what they do that last part is very hard and very important). Thus is you don't want to do your job you should not have it.

Your job is not a right. A person who's religion says they can't serve women cannot be in the service sector (except maybe at male only places like a penis surgeon). If there are aspects of a job a person doesn't like or cannot do because of their conscious/religion then you shouldn't do that job. A person have every right to object (and you should) but then they shouldn't be in that job. People can't get paid for not doing their work.

For instance. I don't agree with the death penalty and I have sever problems (moral/ethical/"religious") with the idea of killing anyone. Thus it does not make sense for me to join the army! It is not discrimination to fire someone who does not do their job.

The whole problem is centered on the point: What does freedom OF religion mean. It means that you are free to exercise your religion without government interference. The question is to whether that freedom is universal or only private. Our supreme court has not followed a single consistent stance and has thus made a mess of things (like with carrying a long sharp dagger in public because of your "faith"). Hopefully the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in Regina will be able to set out a consistent and thoughtful definition of freedom of religion as being private (and not above the right getting what you pay an employee for) for other courts to follow.

Besides it can't be that bad since "there are no atheists in fox holes"* and a lot of them must be Christian/Jews/Muslims who must obey the very clear commandment: Thou shall not kill! They seem to have no problem with that one!

*PS: There are plenty of atheists in fox holes serving their country bravely (I know some personally) and the statement is only uttered here to show the ridiculousness of the idea of forgoing some of a job due to religious belief.