There have, historically, been religious exemptions to a great deal of law. People can opt out of mandatory immunizations due to religious exemptions, religious organizations are allowed to discriminate against protected classes in employment due to their religious beliefs, etc. In Oregon, we've been struggling the last couple of years to deal with folks called Disciples of Christ (I believe) who follow old faith healing rules and their religion prohibits them from taking sick kids to the doctor. We have a pretty strong religious exemption here for how you deal with kids but several kids have died in the last couple years due to lack of medical attention for things that would have been pretty easily taken care of if the parent had brought them in which has finally prompted the state to bring prosecutions for neglect.
Anyway, I'm not advocating religious groups being able to ignore law that applies to everyone else just because of their belief system. I do think it is instructional, however, to realize that we have historically done that in many cases (criminal law included) for Christian groups. Cheers, Judah On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 11:26 AM, PT <[email protected]> wrote: > > Someone needs to smack that judge individually and not make a blanket > rule, especially not an amendment to a constitution. > > Sorry Muslim dudes, but your religious laws do not trump U.S. criminal > law. I don't think I would get a pass for killing someone with the > justification being that the Old Testament told me to (and in fact, > people haven't). > > If one lives in the U.S. they need to fulfill their responsibilities as > a citizen, which includes abiding by the law of the land. Rape should > be no more tolerated than honor killings. > > This is one of the biggest problems with Islamic fundamentalism and > western society. Islam and Islamic law are joined at the hip and > Islamic law is incompatible with the laws of most modern societies. It > is an outdated system that has outlived its purpose and needs to be > revised, or abandoned. Preferably the latter. > > ----- > "Because I can lie beautiful true things into existence ..." > Neil Gaiman on Why I write. > > On 1/11/2012 11:05 PM, Jerry Milo Johnson wrote: >> >> If you had followed the passing of this law, the bill was drafted in >> response to a judge's ruling in New Jersey, evoking Sharia law, finding a >> husband not worthy of a restraining order based on spousal abuse (physical >> and sexual) because "it was part of the husband's religion". >> >> Earlier this year an appeals court in New Jersey overturned a state court >> judge's refusal to issue a restraining order against a Muslim man who >> forced his wife to engage in sexual intercourse. The judge found that the >> man did not intend to rape his wife because he believed his religion >> permitted him to have sex with her whenever he desired. >> >> The case "presents a conflict between the criminal law and religious >> precepts," the appeals court wrote. "In resolving this conflict, the judge >> determined to except (the husband) from the operation of the State's >> statutes as the result of his religious beliefs. In doing so, the judge was >> mistaken." >> >> http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-12-09-shariaban09_ST_N.htm >> >> >> As noted, the judge was overturned by an appeals court, and the OK bill was >> a pretty egregious example of overreaction based on mindless fear. >> >> But I do understand the desire to keep religion out of our courts >> (regardless of WHICH religion) >> >> And a judge DID use Sharia as the basis for his ruling (which is pretty >> scary, overall, especially for his wife, I am sure) > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:345278 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
