Fired for being a "religious bigot"

[DiZent]

So my niece posted on facebook that she fired her dogsitter for being a “religious bigot”. I see no connection between the ability to dogsit and one’s religious beliefs. Now this is an informal kind of employment, and I suppose she has the right to discriminate about who comes to her home and around her family. Her pet issues are abortion and gay marriage - both of which she supports, and always makes negative comments, calling people who disagree “religious bigots”. It made me think about how high the stakes can be for standing up for your beliefs. If this were in the actual workplace, would the fired employee have any recourse? Just what are the criteria that makes one a “religious bigot”. Affiliation with a particular faith, voicing your opinion, praying in front of others? Seems all of these are protected, or are they? I don’t respond to her rants on facebook.

 

[Rau]

So my niece posted on facebook that she fired her dogsitter for being a “religious bigot”. I see no connection between the ability to dogsit and one’s religious beliefs. Now this is an informal kind of employment, and I suppose she has the right to discriminate about who comes to her home and around her family. Her pet issues are abortion and gay marriage - both of which she supports, and always makes negative comments, calling people who disagree “religious bigots”. It made me think about how high the stakes can be for standing up for your beliefs. If this were in the actual workplace, would the fired employee have any recourse? Just what are the criteria that makes one a “religious bigot”. Affiliation with a particular faith, voicing your opinion, praying in front of others? Seems all of these are protected, or are they? I don’t respond to her rants on facebook.

One wonders how such matters arose in the presumably short relationship between your niece and her dog sitter.

 

[PaulinVA]

So my niece posted on facebook that she fired her dogsitter for being a “religious bigot”. I see no connection between the ability to dogsit and one’s religious beliefs. Now this is an informal kind of employment, and I suppose she has the right to discriminate about who comes to her home and around her family. Her pet issues are abortion and gay marriage - both of which she supports, and always makes negative comments, calling people who disagree “religious bigots”. It made me think about how high the stakes can be for standing up for your beliefs. If this were in the actual workplace, would the fired employee have any recourse? Just what are the criteria that makes one a “religious bigot”. Affiliation with a particular faith, voicing your opinion, praying in front of others? Seems all of these are protected, or are they? I don’t respond to her rants on facebook.

Since freedom of religion is a constitutional right, and discrimination on the basis of religious belief is illegal, this doesn’t require a lot of legal analysis. She fired someone based on their religious belief.

So, this is illegal and she should apologize to prevent legal problems. In a real workplace, HR would never let this happen.

Now, if she was harassing your niece, then, that is different. That is less clear.

 

[FrenzyJen]

big·ot
noun
a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.

Ironic, huh?

 

[Rau]

big·ot
noun
a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.

Ironic, huh?

The charge of bigotry is justly labelled at the person whose actions are unacceptable, not their views. The “intolerance” can only be recognised in actions (including some speech), not in the views themselves.

We don’t know what the dog sitter did on account of their views (if anything) that so upset the niece. And so whether the niece had any just basis for firing the sitter is thus not known. Certainly the fact that the sitter held views that abortion / gay marriage are wrong would not be a just reason to fire a person (and ditto for the opposing views), unless the terms of the employment properly incorporated an agreement on that matter.

Nevertheless, we occasionally do see situations where the mere admission of a view is itself deemed bigotry and the person concerned is ostracised as a result.

Note that a view such as “I believe all [insert race / culture / creed / etc] persons should be shot” advocates action and so is itself bigoted.

 

[TARRAT]

Doesn’t her attitude make her a “religious bigot”.

Kind of like somebody judging somebody else as judgemental.

 

[captainrick]

One wonders how such matters arose in the presumably short relationship between your niece and her dog sitter.

Exactly! I can just imagine the interaction: “Here’s the dog… Now let’s have a big contentious religious argument.”

 

[pensmama87]

Considering this was probably just a “friendly arrangement”…there probably isn’t anything the former dog sitter can do. But yeah, you can’t fire someone simply for having certain religious beliefs in a regular job, if the beliefs have nothing to do with the job itself.

At the same time, it’s possible that the dog sitter said something inappropriate to your niece outside the realm of the arrangement, or that your niece said something that prompted the dog sitter to reply and…well, you get the picture.

There’s not enough information to know if your niece behaved badly, or the dog sitter did, or both of them.

 

[Havard]

The charge of bigotry is justly labelled at the person whose actions are unacceptable, not their views. The “intolerance” can only be recognised in actions (including some speech), not in the views themselves.

We don’t know what the dog sitter did on account of their views (if anything) that so upset the niece. And so whether the niece had any just basis for firing the sitter is thus not known. Certainly the fact that the sitter held views that abortion / gay marriage are wrong would not be a just reason to fire a person (and ditto for the opposing views), unless the terms of the employment properly incorporated an agreement on that matter.

Nevertheless, we occasionally do see situations where the mere admission of a view is itself deemed bigotry and the person concerned is ostracised as a result.

Note that a view such as “I believe all [insert race / culture / creed / etc] persons should be shot” advocates action and so is itself bigoted.

Perhaps the sitter did express something truly reprehensible, but let’s face it - the word gets tossed around very easily if you vocally affirm traditional values such as those expressed by the Church. If you don’t believe me, I invite you to join me in any discussion going on about homosexuality on the National Catholic Reporter articles comments sections.

 

[DiZent]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I believe that there has to be an objectionable action in the real work world, but it these times, just voicing your opinion gives occasion for a co-worker to :take offense" and can lead to reprimand. I don’t know what the dog sitter said. I would think that if my niece asked him/her to stop proselytizing and he/she continued, that might be a mitigating factor. It just struck me as discrimination based on religious preference.

 

[pianistclare]

Wonder how the dog feels

j/k

couldn’t resist

 

[Rau]

Wonder how the dog feels

j/k

couldn’t resist

If only he could speak, then this matter could be resolved!

 

[pianistclare]

if only he could speak, then this matter could be resolved!

speak! Arf!

 

[Crown_of_Stars]

Honestly, I’ve gotten so sick to death of name-calling. As a Catholic, I don’t feel thinking abortion is wrong is an opinion. You can’t think something is wrong that just is plain wrong. It isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact. Wrong is wrong, right is right, however you’re going to say it. Opinion isn’t even the right word, although we all have fallen into the habit of using it. I’m sick of seeing the decent people being treated as though they have to “explain” why they feel the way they do. Get over it! It sounds to me as though the niece is the bigot, not the dogsitter. So that dogsitter had a right to be fired just for that? When she was interviewing for dogsitters, then she should have hired someone who believes in being a child-killer.

 

[Estevao]

Leftists have overused this word to the point where it’s meaningless now.

 

[petitfleur]

Not sure about this particular incident but thinking something and preaching it at work are two different things. I have seen extreme behavior from both sides and I think both are inappropriate. Some people don’t want to be constantly bombarded by others religious or political views. I am one of those. I have to admit I role my eyes a bit at a FB friend who posts lots of Evangelical stuff. I do the same at a friend who is very left thinking.

 

[BobCatholic]

So my niece posted on facebook that she fired her dogsitter for being a “religious bigot”.

I think you should show the dogsitter that facebook post and encourage him/her to sue for religious discrimination.

It is your niece who is acting like the bigot.

 

[Mayita30]

So my niece posted on facebook that she fired her dogsitter for being a “religious bigot”. I see no connection between the ability to dogsit and one’s religious beliefs. Now this is an informal kind of employment, and I suppose she has the right to discriminate about who comes to her home and around her family. Her pet issues are abortion and gay marriage - both of which she supports, and always makes negative comments, calling people who disagree “religious bigots”. It made me think about how high the stakes can be for standing up for your beliefs. If this were in the actual workplace, would the fired employee have any recourse? Just what are the criteria that makes one a “religious bigot”. Affiliation with a particular faith, voicing your opinion, praying in front of others? Seems all of these are protected, or are they? I don’t respond to her rants on facebook.

Tell Her :

The fact that you think differently that me, ***does not ***give you the right to start name-calling or bullying others.

 

[Mystic_Banana]

Tell Her :

The fact that you think differently that me, ***does not ***give you the right to start name-calling or bullying others.

Being religious is so non - PC…

Could be worse she could have accused her of being a HATER

Sadly, in my experience, what passes for modern “liberalism” is, rather hypocriticaly, the most bigoted, uncompromising and censorous ideology in play in modern society, and it’s in charge, probably more here in the UK than over in the states. As soon as you see the development of the concept of “hate speech”, you know you’ve got to watch your tongue…in case someone sprays it in black on your door, and the milkman stops selling you milk.

The first time I saw the term described, it was immediately defended as not threatening free speech… which is of course because that’s blatantly what it’s designed to do. It’s a term to be thrown about like an accusation of witchcraft a few hundred years ago would have been.

Where manipulative nuspeak is clearly becoming a reality, including in law, in the form of political correctness, I think it’s fair to say we’re not living in cultures where freedom of expression is given high priority, in reality - rather the opposite, in fact

 

[petitfleur]

Tell Her :

The fact that you think differently that me, ***does not ***give you the right to start name-calling or bullying others.

I think lines can be crossed depending how personal a situation is. Not all Christians believe the same thing. If a person posted "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman." That does not bother me. My daughter and her friend received "A ticket to Hell" at school. It was a Christian tract that said you are going to hell if you......and a long list of stuff that would send you to hell. One of them being homosexuality. My daughter's friends sister is gay suffers from severe depression regarding this and recently attempted suicide. I find that offensive, and I would not want to associate with people who condemned others to hell. My sister and her husband are atheists, their daughter had nightmares because she was told by a bunch of kids she was going to hell. Lastly, there are a lot of people who vehemently believe Catholics are not Christians, that's fine but if you keep bringing it up to me and going on about how bad Catholics are, I am going to avoid interacting with you. My problem is not what others believe but how in your face they are about it. There is only so much I will put up with.