Claims Religious Intolerance
J D Guckert – TALUN NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Mark Malouse, a pharmacist employed by the Albertsons chain in Baton Rouge, LA has filed suit against his employer for religious discrimination.
Mr. Malouse, a recent convert to Christian Science, states that the firm is demanding that he fill prescriptions for medications that are in contradiction to his spiritual and moral beliefs.
The Church of Christ, Scientist, teaches that disease is only correctly treated thru prayer. As such Mr. Malouse has stocked his pharmacy with tracts on the efficacy of prayer and for a small fee will provide his customers with copies of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
Pharmacists must be free to exercise their consciences, states Mr. Malouse. “Every day “, he states, ” I see customers claiming that they have “diseases” like diabetes come to my counter with false hope in things like insulin, when God teaches us that what we really need is to humble ourselves in prayer”.
Mr. Malouse notes that it is intolerable discrimination that Albertsons has adopted the policy of allowing pharmacists of some denominations to refuse to fill prescriptions to which their denomination objects, and yet will not do the same for him and his fellow Christian Scientist pharmacists.
The devout life-long Christian is hoping to start a group, Christian Scientist Pharmacists for Conscience to support others suffering oppression.
“The sad thing”, noted Mr. Malouse, “is that our secular culture discriminates against so many people of faith – not just Christian Scientists such as myself”
As an example, he noted the case of a Hindu neighbor who was employed by McDonalds and was forced to serve customers hamburgers.
You had me until Guckert. 🙂
Very good.
Clever. Too clever.
Like the above poster, I was also unsure until I saw our favorite reporter/prostitute’s name at the top.
Very well done, and it is some sad social commentary that I couldn’t tell it was a joke right away! I’ve actually been waiting for something like this to happen in real-life since the discussion of these stupid laws started.
It took me a minute to catch on. I finally got it at “Christian Scientist Pharmacist”. LOL
My Great Grandmother was a CS. Apparently she wasn’t a very good one since I know she took medicine.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it’s legal to fire someone who is disabled if that person’s disability renders him or her unable to perform the essential functions of the job. If I’m blind, I have no legal right to be a bus driver.
Dispensing prescribed medications would seem to me to be the essential job function of a pharmacist. Ergo, if someone has a problem with dispensing particular prescribed medications, that person should not be a pharmacist–and it shouldn’t be considered discriminatory to keep that person out of that job.
faith-based disability. I like it.
was a case a few years back, where an Orthodox Jew sued BART because he wanted to take Saturdays off for religious reasons, but BART days off (as in all transit agencies in the Bay Area, AFAIK) are set by seniority; it takes a while to get weekend days off, and people know that going into the job.
It would seem that pharmacists claiming “religious bias” would be in the same vein…
Someone clever enough to come up with this is clever enough to turn this into the Perfect Wedge Issue
The longer Bush is in office the harder it is for me to distinguish snark from reality.
Seriously, the dude would have a good case. Once you make an exception for one religion- you must give it to all.
Anyone remember how the threat of Satanist clubs shut down every Bible club in the Utah schools?
The opposition is not logical.
Judges (and I presume legislators) have already been defining the proper exercise of religion for many years. Wine at communion is legal, peyote mushrooms are not. Divorced parents may teach their children Roman Catholicism, they may not teach them Wicca. This latter decision came within the last month or so.
There is no force binding the opposition to logic or consistency. They will do whatever advances their cause and they will block whatever restricts it–without regard to principles of federalism, Constitutional law, scientific theories, or anything in the history of civilization.
They’re not a political movement, they’re a conquest.
Communion wine actually enjoys legislative exemption from liquor laws, otherwise it would be subject to the same protection as ritual peyote use (nada). Come to think of it, the (Amendment repealing prohibition gave states pleniary power to regulate alcohol, trumping to at least some extent the first Amendment- so religious peyote use may in fact have more free exercize protection than wine. (well-almost, see the recent vinyard shipped wine case for dormant commerce limits on state alcohol regulation)
And that the no wicca custody order was idiotic; but, honestly, as much as I dislike the conservatives on the Court- not a one of them would uphold that decree.
Not to say there aren’t real problems, but current jurisprudence is not off the wall- maybe that is why the fundies are so up in arms over judicial apointments. In order to get their way they will need Judges who make Scalia look like model of decency and restraint. People like Owen, Brown and Pryor…
..and I thought satire was dead….
Thanks.
Satire has been dead in this country since Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize” – Tom Lehrer