mehitabel

Here's a big fat can of worms.

I received a newsletter on employment law from my company's law firm today and it contained this little gem. The case is Peterson vs. Wilmur Communications, tried in a federal court.

In a nutshell, a company hired a man to supervise eight employees, a mix of white and non-white. The company subsequently discovered that this supervisor was a "reverend" in the World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist organization. The churches system of beliefs called Creativity, which teaches, among other things, that Jews control the nation and have instigated all wars, the Holocaust never happened but if it did, it would have been doing the world a favor, and all people of color are savages. What is does not teach is any sort of belief in a god, an afterlife, or anything else commonly thought of as religion. It's sole moral teaching is that members must live according to the principle that what is good for white people is good, and what is bad for white people is sin.

Well, the company demoted the supervisor to a non-supervisory position, and he sued the company for religious discrimination.

The court found in favor of the employee, declaring Creativity to be a religion. The court's interpretation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was that moral and ethical beliefs can be considered religious as long as they are held with the strength of religious convictions. The court must now give "great weight" to a claimant's own characterization of his beliefs as "religious".

Now, this seems to be an extremely, dangerously broad definition of what constitutes a religion. As the article points out, this decision leaves the door wide open for other groups to begin calling themselves religions, and you just know the whackier they are, the more likely they are to do so.

Jeez, like we didn't have enough problems with Scientology bending the religion definition. The way the federal courts are being stacked with paleoconservatives these days, any "right-thinking" group could get itself termed a religion with all the tax advantages and anti-discrimination laws that go with it.

Talulah

If I recall correctly, White supremacy has long been tied to religion. Hell, they use the bible to justify it is the main reason. I will scare up some links for evidence and post them in a bit.

Talulah

<a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/wcotc1.htm" target="_blank">http://www.religioustolerance.org/wcotc1.htm</a> The


<a href="http://www.kukluxklan.org/" target="_blank">http://www.kukluxklan.org/</a> (I wouldn't click on this one if you are at work...it is something employers generally wouldn't like....however, this site proves how Christian oriented these people are.

<a href="http://www.rickross.com/reference/christian_identity/christianidentity19.html" target="_blank">http://www.rickross.com/reference/christian_identity/christianidentity19.html</a>

So, even if this group isn't Christian, (they say they aren't but still identiy themselves as a 'religion', many white supremacy groups are.

Pitshade

This would be better off in Church/State.

Toto

This case was posted <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=45&t=001432" target="_blank">here</a> in Misc Relig Discussions, now General Religious Discussions.

The definition of religion is a very standard one for First Amendment purposes.

However, the white racist did not win the case. He only prevailed against a motion for summary judgment, but as I noted in the other thread, it looks like they could prevail on the facts if they get their case together. There were some insufficiently documented complaints that Patterson was not evenhanded in his supervision, but they were not on the record for the motion for summary judgment.

Toto

There are White Supremacists who try to use Christianity to justify their racism, but I don't think that is a charge that you can validly hang on Christian doctrine. The World Church of the Creator is not Christian and does not seem to have grown out of Christianity. The Christian Identity movement does claim to be Christian.

Christianity can, however, justify slavery. Southern slave owners in the US considered themselves good Christians, attempting to run a Christian nation in opposition to the Unitarians in New England.

Voltaire Is My Hero

It's no surprise to me. Whoever said "Patriotism is the first refuge of the scoundrel" was wrong. In my opinion, "Religion is the first refuge of the scoundrel."

--Cindy

mehitabel

Thanks for the link, Toto. One of the drawbacks of being new to a discussion board is missing all that history. Hey, if it's new to me, it must be new to everyone, right? yeah.

I know that there are many religions that include a white supremacy line and use their holy text of choice as ammunition, but what seemed unusual to me was the interpretation that any stongly held moral/ethical opinion can be considered to hold the same place in law as a religion.

(btw, I originally intended to put the OP in this forum but changed it because I thought it might start more ranting than discussion. What's that they tell you - always go with your first instinct in a multiple-choice situation)

Toto

First of all, welcome to the boards, mehitabel. Still singing toujours gai, I hope.

What seems unusual to you is a legal commonplace. It was an issue in the 60's with draft cases, when young men who considered themselves pacifists but were not part of an organized religious group, argued that they were still entitled to a draft exemption for their beliefs.

And of course, the essence of the First Amendment is that the government is not a judge of religious beliefs. Who is to say that the bizarre-sounding science fiction beliefs of Scientology are less religious than the bizarre claims of the Christian Bible? They are both protected under the "Free Exercise" clause of the First Amendment.