:: The Bitch Girls ::

:: Friday, December 27, 2002 ::

Religion, Holidays, and Government While trapped in the car with Bitchy Mother for damn near seven hours today, we had a rather heated discussion. She’s been an employee of the state (both for Oklahoma and Virginia) for pretty much her entire life. I pointed out that it seemed a little odd to me that she got both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off from a state agency. I simply asked that where she back in her administrative position (something she retired from 4 years ago), had an employee that, say, celebrated July 28 as something similar to Christmas in his religion, approached her about having the day off, what would she do? She said that she’d give him the day off, but require him to take it out of his vacation. My complaint had nothing to do with the fact that she got both Christmas and Christmas Eve off, because if he doesn’t want to celebrate anything on those days, then that’s fine, he can enjoy the days off to do whatever the hell he wants. But rather, why is it that the employee forced to give up part of his benefits to celebrate his religious holiday?

Of course, I ended up getting the “This country was founded on Christian values, and if they don’t like it, they can leave” speech. No offense Bitchy Mother, but you know that I don’t buy the argument. The Constitution doesn’t allow for a state imposed religion, and it can’t support one religion over another. So, would a state agency have to give the employee July 28 off without asking the employee to give up one of his vacation days? Anyone have a specific answer to this? I don’t think Bitchy Mom ever made the distinction between the fact that it was a state agency, not private industry where the employee would just have to suck it up. Just a thought for the holidays.

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:: Bitter 11:04 PM [+] ::
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