Religious Conscience and the Private Market
نویسنده
چکیده
I argue for a general account of when an appeal to religious conscience removes a legal obligation to render a private market service. Recent cases in the state courts and legislative bodies evince the need for a specific account of the success conditions for religious conscience objections to private market services where these obligations arise from anti-discrimination clauses. I begin with some conceptual clarifications and then proceed to examine cases and argue for a general account. On the account I propose a religious conscience objection succeeds if and only if the act is a sacramental kind according to a specific religion and it is not common knowledge that the specific religion is false. On my view appeal to common knowledge is crucial for fairly balancing the competing rights of religious autonomy and anti-discrimination. Consider the following case. Orthodox Baker An evangelical goes to an orthodox Jewish bakery and asks for a cake on which is written in Hebrew ‘The LORD is great’. However, the evangelical wants the words ‘The LORD’ to be written using the divine name, which may not be written down according to orthodox Judaism. The orthodox baker kindly explains that this violates his religious tradition and suggests three other bakers who may provide such a cake. ∗Thanks to Kenny Boyce, Lara Buchak, Aaron Cobb, Allan Hillman, Tim Pawl, Alex Pruss, Dan Speak, Neal Tognazzini, Chris Tucker, Josh Thurow, and William Wainwright for helpful comments on an earlier draft. The modern Rabbinic code Mishnah Berurah states: It is forbidden to read the glorious and terrible name as it is written, as the sages said “He that pronounces the name as it is written has no portion in the world to come.” Therefore it must be read as if it were written ‘Adonai’. (Mishnah Berurah 5:2)
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