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Neil_Anthony
Guest
Is it a sin to work for a store that sells immoral things, such as contraception, books with immoral characters, immodest clothing, and dual-use items?
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Newbie2
Guest
Not unless that’s only what they sell, then it could be questionable. Otherwise, no.
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Neil_Anthony
Guest
But what if those contraceptives include the morning after pill and abortifacient BC pills and possibly RU-486?
Just asking, I feel sorry for pharmacists.
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BlaineTog
Guest
Err, then it becomes trickier. It would certainly be wrong to choose to sell those or to recommend them, but I don’t know if the cashier and janitor are at fault too. My guess is that it’s generally ok up to abortifacients as long as it’s just a subset as long as you would prefer they didn’t sell the objects in question, but with abortifacients… I dunno, but the safe course is to steer clear.
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Newbie2
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It may depend on the State i.e. what the laws are on Pharmacists refusing to fill a prescription of BC pills. But cashiers, stock people, etc.? Again, not a problem.
It’d be a little different if the situation was, say, being a ticket seller in a XXX movie theater.
I know some pharmacists who own their own shops (too few) have decided NOT to carry contraceptives and abortifacients. They’ve drawn quite a lot of fire (there was a scathing article in Prevention magazine about 3 years ago about this) so I don’t think the big stores (like Wal*Mart and Walgreens that also have pharmacies) are going to risk losing that money.
That being said, I work at Wal*Mart, in the bakery, and I’ve been approached many times by managers asking if I’d like to train as a backup cashier (for the store’s busy times). Repeatedly I’ve said no and I’ve told them why: I do not want to be directly involved in selling artificial contraceptives. They think I’m nuts, but oh well! It’s bad enough the store sells them at all (as well as those racy magazines at the checkout stands… honestly, does Cosmopolitan reinvent the wheel every month when it comes to sex, just to have provocative headlines??? It seems every issue has a “How To” article in it! I think the folks buying that magazine already know “How To”, and so does most of humanity or else mankind would have become extinct eons ago!)
And even if it wasn’t company policy, I would still be turning down those outrageous bachelor and bachelorette party cakes. I won’t even write anything profane or vulgar on a cake… I just point the customer toward the tubes of frosting in the baking aisle and tell them to do it themselves. I don’t use that kind of language at home, I’m certainly not going to do it at work (even if I am, in a way, being paid for it!)
I think you have to do the best you can with whatever employment opportunities there are as long as you avoid direct involvement with such things… but even if you don’t deal with it directly, don’t be afraid to say you disagree with it. My co-workers think I’m over zealous, but they’re not answering for my soul: I am.
That being said, I work at Wal*Mart, in the bakery, and I’ve been approached many times by managers asking if I’d like to train as a backup cashier (for the store’s busy times). Repeatedly I’ve said no and I’ve told them why: I do not want to be directly involved in selling artificial contraceptives. They think I’m nuts, but oh well! It’s bad enough the store sells them at all (as well as those racy magazines at the checkout stands… honestly, does Cosmopolitan reinvent the wheel every month when it comes to sex, just to have provocative headlines??? It seems every issue has a “How To” article in it! I think the folks buying that magazine already know “How To”, and so does most of humanity or else mankind would have become extinct eons ago!)
And even if it wasn’t company policy, I would still be turning down those outrageous bachelor and bachelorette party cakes. I won’t even write anything profane or vulgar on a cake… I just point the customer toward the tubes of frosting in the baking aisle and tell them to do it themselves. I don’t use that kind of language at home, I’m certainly not going to do it at work (even if I am, in a way, being paid for it!)
I think you have to do the best you can with whatever employment opportunities there are as long as you avoid direct involvement with such things… but even if you don’t deal with it directly, don’t be afraid to say you disagree with it. My co-workers think I’m over zealous, but they’re not answering for my soul: I am.
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Flopfoot
Guest
No, it’s not a sin. This is called “remote material co-operation” with evil. Remote meaning that you are far removed from the evil act in terms of events… you’re not actually helping them use the pill, you’re just handing it over the counter and they go home and take it. Material meaning that you don’t actually approve of the evil… if you do approve of the evil and that’s why you’re helping spread it, then it is Formal co-operation rather than material.
Lots of Catholics work as pharmacists. Many need the job to support their families. They’re not the ones actually deciding what the shop should sell (the owner of the pharmacy is), but the store does stock it and they’re expected to sell it to keep their job. This doesn’t mean encouraging people to use it, i just means if someone comes in and puts it on the counter you treat it like any other transcation… take their money and put it in a bag. No sin committed.
Lots of Catholics work as pharmacists. Many need the job to support their families. They’re not the ones actually deciding what the shop should sell (the owner of the pharmacy is), but the store does stock it and they’re expected to sell it to keep their job. This doesn’t mean encouraging people to use it, i just means if someone comes in and puts it on the counter you treat it like any other transcation… take their money and put it in a bag. No sin committed.
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peary
Guest
I would say that working in such an environment encourages others to sin if you are the one selling this stuff in the name of the store. Through you, if you are selling immoral items personally, you are doing it as an extension of the moral decisions of the company itself. Personally, I would call it sinful if I had a personal decision made to encourage the store’s sexual agenda.
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drafdog
Guest
I don’t give a rat’s posterior *what *you do for a living; it will entail one or more morally questionable activities. I *would *advise that you look into entering religious life but I know that you would be deemed to be entering for impure motives (running away from life) and you would not be accepted anyway.
The best way to handle the problem you outline is to stop thinking about what other people’s motives *might *be and get on with the work. Currently it looks as though you are letting your (prurient?) imagination run away with you.
Matthew
The best way to handle the problem you outline is to stop thinking about what other people’s motives *might *be and get on with the work. Currently it looks as though you are letting your (prurient?) imagination run away with you.
Matthew
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Neil_Anthony
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Coder
Guest
I’m not sure how “remote” it is, but we are also called to transform the world and we don’t transform it by going along with it.
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thomfra
Guest
Dual use items???
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LilyM
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Don’t ask, we none of us need to know :nope:
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Charybdis
Guest
We know that birth control pills cause a woman harm (not to mention the abortifacient properties) so the question is the pharmacist morally bound not to sell or fill the prescription?
I think you have to put it in analogy form. Say someone wants to buy a gun and he says he will use it to shoot at someone (cause harm). Do you sell it to him? And let’s remember, bartenders are held to be responsible for selling drinks to people and if the person gets drunk and then kills someone in the car, they can be held responsible…so, I believe the pharmacist should do something to stop the practice of selling birth control and so should any other employee.
Now,here’s the doozy for me, my father is a life-long pharmacist who owns his own pharmacy and he has been filling birth control pills for as long as I can remember. I have tried to get him to stop by giving him the Pharmacists for Life website and printed articles, etc. A tough situation, that’s for sure…
But, there may be light at the end of the tunnel: he is selling off his pharmacy! I know it won’t make up for all the past years of doing these things, but at least he won’t be responsible any longer for the decision to sell these things…
I think you have to put it in analogy form. Say someone wants to buy a gun and he says he will use it to shoot at someone (cause harm). Do you sell it to him? And let’s remember, bartenders are held to be responsible for selling drinks to people and if the person gets drunk and then kills someone in the car, they can be held responsible…so, I believe the pharmacist should do something to stop the practice of selling birth control and so should any other employee.
Now,here’s the doozy for me, my father is a life-long pharmacist who owns his own pharmacy and he has been filling birth control pills for as long as I can remember. I have tried to get him to stop by giving him the Pharmacists for Life website and printed articles, etc. A tough situation, that’s for sure…
But, there may be light at the end of the tunnel: he is selling off his pharmacy! I know it won’t make up for all the past years of doing these things, but at least he won’t be responsible any longer for the decision to sell these things…
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Neil_Anthony
Guest
Like glue for example, that can either be sniffed to get high or used to make model airplanes.
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Predikant
Guest
If you work in the counter selling these evil things for people, and if you get asked questions and you give them advice on how to sin more and better, then yes it is a sin and will even lead you to Hell since you then lack the virtue of discerning the will of God, and what is not the will of God.
Lust lead most people to Hell, why then embrace it and even help others fall down to Hell?
You can read about chastity and why it must be kept to enter Heaven, (its only allowed for procreation, if you want no children, you must live in chastity)
www.saintbirgitta.com - book 1, chapter 26
www.saintbirgitta.com - book 1, chapter 9
www.saintbirgitta.com - book 7, chapter 27
www.saintbirgitta.com - book 1, chapter 13
www.saintbirgitta.com - book 1, chapter 16
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