Comments | cellio: religion and profession

cellio

religion and profession

Jul 18, 2006 20:39

osewalrus posted an excellent essay on conflicts between religion and one's profession. He and I agree: you are completely free to practice your religion, but if doing so causes complications in your life, you -- not the rest of society -- need to deal with that.

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amergina July 19 2006, 16:18:38 UTC

The morality of a country shifts over time. And science advances. I wonder how many pharmacists knew when they started their carrier that they would have to prescribe Plan B (and in Oregon, assisted suicide drugs) as part of being a pharmacist?

What if morality shifts in a way that your (wide use) morality/religion opposes? What happens then? Do you quit your job and start over?

zachkessin July 19 2006, 17:20:29 UTC

No one said it would always be easy. Sometimes being a Moral Person requires you to make a hard choice. If you object to giving out Plan B or birth control pills or whatever that is YOUR problem and you need to deal with it. If you have to leave your job and find a new one to live with yourself than that may be what you have to do.

amergina July 19 2006, 18:30:16 UTC

The other question I have is do you abandon your profession for your morality if you are also serving people who share your morality ( ... )

cellio July 20 2006, 03:09:49 UTC

The other question I have is do you abandon your profession for your morality if you are also serving people who share your morality?I think everyone wins if a person in this situation can focus on serving people who share his morality. I have no more problem with the idea of Catholic (or Jewish or Muslim or Wiccan or...) medical practices than I do with such schools. People aren't all the same, and there's nothing wrong and quite a bit good with forming voluntary associations to meet the needs of a specific community. (This does not mean becoming insular, as it's not likely to affect all areas of life ( ... )

cellio July 20 2006, 02:57:40 UTC

The morality of a country shifts over time. And science advances.

True. I think it tends to shift gradually enough that most people should not wake up one morning and suddenly find themselves unable to work. For example, a pharmacist who objects to dispensing birth control in a world that's starting to trend that way but isn't there yet can probably find employment in a venue where it doesn't come up -- elder care, Catholic hospital, etc. I hope. The suicide thing was a more sudden change, but even so it happened over many years -- time for people who objected to change their job situations so they wouldn't have to be involved.

What if morality shifts in a way that your (wide use) morality/religion opposes? What happens then? Do you quit your job and start over?I think it's an unlikely scenario, as most fields support a fairly wide variety of types of position. But let's take an extreme, hypothetical example: suppose you're a clergy person and you lose your belief in God? If you're willing to pretend you can still find ( ... )

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