Monday, October 16, 2006

You Gotta Have Faith

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." There's a whole new meaning to that one according to The New York Times.

Just ask Mary Rosati. She was a novice training to be a nun. Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer. For that, her mother superior sacked the young woman. Hmm - what would Jesus do? Rosati sued but the church was held exempt from liability because, well it's a church, dummy. The paper cites another case, this a rabbi in New Mexico who got unceremoniously booted out the door when he developed Parksinson's and was, likewise, unable to sue for compensation.

The current U.S. laws are so broad that even operations just remotely affiliated with a religious institution are above the law. In some states, church day cares are exempted from licensing requirements and churches have shown themselves able to avoid zoning laws that would apply to anyone else.

Now the inevitable backlash has begun. Fair is fair, even if it does affect a church.

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