Definition of Infringe
Can we please have a little discussion on what “infringe” means? I don’t believe your rights are being infringed upon if someone displays something religious in their cube at work. I think you might have a claim if it was in a common area or someone sent you religious email like they sent Justin a while back. Freedom of religion doesn’t mean that we all have to hide our beliefs. It just means we can’t push them on others. Having a reasonable display of a Christmas tree, a Menorah, a festivus pole or a picture of L. Ron Hubbard is not out of line and doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights to religious freedom in my humble opinion.
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3 Responses to “Definition of Infringe”
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I’m certain that putting L. Ron in your cube violates the principle of “Separation of Church and Work” as set forth in the 99th Amendment.
Speaking of Ron, I once went to the Boston Church of Scientology to watch their recruitment video. Really.
It was good fun. Actually, it was one of the better comedies I’d seen in a while. Anyway, in each “Church” building, an office is set aside for Ron (as they, and now I, call him), because back when he was still kicking, Mr. Hubbard would come visit each “church” for goodly amounts of time to make sure they were spreading His word correctly.
Anyway, outside each of his many offices is a bust of Ron. You can’t imagine how much I’d pay for one. And I’d totally put it on my desk.
I do think that to some extent religion hanging in your cube at work in plain sight of everyone else is infringing upon one’s rights. You have freedom to express yourself and your beliefs, but that does not give you the right to express them openly in the workplace while on the clock. However it never bothered me personally to the point where I would take action, particularly because I am in the Bible belt and vastly outnumbered. It becomes more of an issue when they tell you things like, you may not have magazines or newspapers at your cubes, but you may read your bible.
To emphasize excactly how ridiculous these things can get when people choose to take action, last year a person of African American decent inquired why the company did not do anything in honor of black history month, which was a reasonable question. The company responded by stating that they did not feel it was appropriate to single out and celebrate one ethnicity in particular without taking time to honor everyone’s heritage. The problem here in lies that the company responded to this question on the inter-office news letter which was printed on green paper with shamrocks all over it in honor of St. Patrick’s day. (The question was posed in Feb and in March they address all of the questions from the previous month) After someone pointed out the hypocrisy in this, we are henceforth prohibited from celebrating any and all holidays.