Two Errors in Relation to Respecting Religious Rights: Driving a Wedge between Religion and Ethics/Morals and Treating All Kinds of Religious Employers the Same

Abstract

This article argues that “creed” and religion should be understood as something that informs what a person takes into the public and that necessarily includes beliefs that may (and often do) influence “morals and ethics” and even “politics.” Second, religion may be diminished because, with respect to religious employers, there has been insufficient attention to the kind of religious project that is at issue when an employee challenges the employer’s religious rules. The focus has been, in some cases, on the kinds of job duties rather than the nature of the religious association or project itself. An approach to the latter, called by some and “organic” approach views religious projects as wholes and does not subordinate them to an unduly individualistic reading in the way that “job parsing” tests do.

Keywords: diversity, equality, pluralism, Freedom of religion, liberalism, accommodation of religion

JEL Classification: K12, K39, Z12