Accommodations for employees is not uncommon

By Tom Quiner

Kim Davis went to jail because a judge would not allow her a religious accommodation on her job.

Ms. Davis would not sign her name to so-called same-sex wedding licenses, since it violated her Christian beliefs. The judge wouldn’t allow a simple accommodation that would still issue licenses, but without her signature.

Writing in the Washington Post, Eugene Volokh identified many instances of employees receiving accommodations based on their religious beliefs. Here are a few:

• Nurses who had religious objections to being involved in abortions (even just to washing instruments that would be used in abortions);
• Pacifist postal workers who had religious objections to processing draft registration forms;
• A Jehovah’s Witness employee who had religious objections to raising a flag, which was a task assigned to him;
• An IRS employee who had religious objections to working on tax exemption applications for organizations that promote “abortion, … homosexuality, worship of the devil, euthanasia, atheism, legalization of marijuana, immoral sexual experiments, sterilization or vasectomies, artificial contraception, and witchcraft”;
• a philosophically vegetarian bus driver who refused to hand out hamburger coupons as part of an agency’s promotion aimed at boosting ridership;

In today’s anti-Christian climate, there is little interest in accommodating sincere Christians who ask for flexibility in the way they perform their job. Kim Davis joins a growing list of modern American Christian martyrs.