Where society and religion can agree

The conflict between freedom of religion and civil rights is one which will not go away any time soon, if ever. Often the two questions intersect so tightly that it may be difficult if not impossible to separate them. Still, that doesn't mean that there isn't some method of telling when and where either notion ought to get precedence. Perhaps the issue of seating on airplane flights could illustrate that point.

Orthodox Jewish men (or at least some of them) believe that they cannot sit next to a woman not their wife. As such, according to an article in a recent New York Times (you may read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/us/aboard-flights-conflicts-over-seat-assignments-and-religion.html??WT.mc_id=2015-APRIL-AOL-EMAILED_AUD_DEV-0401-0430&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVAPRIL&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing15%7Cdl8%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D641839&_r=0 ) there have been flight delays caused when an Orthodox male refused to sit immediately next to a woman. How might we address such concerns?

The best way may be to accept that there is a difference between solely religious beliefs and real secular intrusion upon religious rights, and that reason can determine where one trumps the other. After all, and we will argue this as axiomatic, no true religion can violate reason. Similarly, no illogical societal prohibition on a given religious practice should be used to impede that practice. If a seemingly religious practice is itself unreasonable, then the general society has grounds to ignore it. If it is reasonable, then society must allow and even arguably make accommodations for it.

In this case, the idea that merely touching a woman not your wife violates the sanctity of marriage is unreasonable. If it weren't, then a male priest baptizing a female infant would be wrong; even such mundane things as a hug or handshake between a man and a woman would be immoral. In short, the simple and incidental touching of a woman whom a man is not married to is not, by any reasonable standard immoral. As such, society may rightly refuse to recognize that any religious right exists on that ground.

This is not to single out Orthodox Jewish men. We're, ahem, reasonably sure that similar conflicts can be found within Catholic, Protestant, Islamic or almost any other creed. Neither are we trying to suggest that every conflict between religion and society can be so readily addressed or dismissed. We will even admit that the case here is so clear (accepting the Times reporting as accurate, and there is no compelling reason not to) that Orthodox Jews on the whole accept what society says on the matter.

But that's part of out point. We're admittedly using a question with an obvious answer just to show how reason should be applied. The line will be more difficult to draw as the issues grow more complex and heated. But at the end of the day what we need is for both society and religion to seek, accept, and live by and within a rational framework. If we can do that, then we all ought to get along just fine.

Girls have no right to play football with boys

Leave it to the Catholic Church to cause controversy over an issue which most of society would see as unimportant, or as having been decided long ago. We say that as a compliment, however. The general society needs a better conscience that it actually has, and the Church offers that to those who listen objectively. You can read a basic (and biased against the Church) synopsis here: http://www.makers.com/blog/caroline-pla-rallies-girls-right-play-football?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl16%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D600481

Caroline Pla has been told that she can no longer play CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) football in a league sponsored by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The Archdiocese has determined that girls should not play contact sports with boys, at least in football. The usual clamor has been raised in an attempt to make the powers that be in the Church in Philadelphia change their mind.

She's a great player, she's great teammate, and she's a role model for young girls are among the platitudes said on her behalf. The trouble is that none of those things matter. When you get down to brass tacks, not even any given boy has a right play in any given sports league, particularly one which is private. If boys don't have an inherent right to play, why should girls?

Then there is the religious aspect. This is another case of the religious right to conscience being ignored by much of society. No individual, and we mean absolutely no individual, has the right to violate the rights of the religious. Of course, that point shall be dismissed. Liberals believe they have the moral authority to force anything on anyone. That includes the religious conscience. The left is only for rights they believe exist.

We hope that the Archdiocese sticks to its guns and will not relent. But whether it does or does not, it is good that it has called attention to such matters. The question of whether should play contact sports with boys isn't really being considered properly. Neither is the issue of religious rights. What is it that so many people, particularly on the left, say? Open your mind when seeking answers. That doesn't seem, however, to apply to their thoughts.

Hobby Lobby will be Denied Its rights

Hobby Lobby and other corporations are having their day in court over certain Obamacare mandates. The best guess is that they will lose their case, and that's sad. Corporations have as much right to express their morals as anyone else, if they are reasonable morals.

For starters, they are moral person. Every corporation, institution, nonprofit and what have you is a moral person. We don't mean moral in the sense that they necessarily act morally. But they have a certain individuality, an existence of their own, and as such must be treated as persons. Especially as persons run them, it strikes us as quite logical that they have the same responsibilities, and therefore rights) as flesh and blood people. They're simply expressing themselves in a different, less direct, medium.

This means that their religious sentiments, again, where reasonable, may be expressed through their policies towards both their workers and their societies. If they don't want to pay for their employees' birth control on religious grounds, and especially as sex is a wholly voluntary action, then they should not have to as a matter of moral and constitutional right.

But that won't happen. Common sense, let alone any sense of the Constitution and religious freedom, mean little these days. Our nation has lost its moorings and is adrift on a sea which will take it with the currents. That they will take us somewhere somehow is certain. And we will be further and further from our moral dock as time goes on.

Girls have no right to play on boys's teams

Leave it to the Christians to cause controversy over an issue which most of society would see as unimportant, or as having been decided long ago. We say that as a compliment, however. The general society needs a better conscience that it actually has, and the Church offers that to those who listen objectively.

Maddy Blythe has been told that she can no longer play football in a league on a team based in a Christian school. The school has determined that girls should not play contact sports with boys, at least in football. The usual clamor has been raised in an attempt to make the powers that be in the school change their mind.

She's a great player, she's great teammate, and she's a role model for young girls are among the platitudes said on her behalf. The trouble is that none of those things matter. When you get down to brass tacks, not even any given boy has a right play in any given sports league or sports team, particularly one which is private. If boys don't have an inherent right to play, why should girls?

Then there is the religious aspect. This is another case of the religious right to conscience being ignored by much of society. No individual, and we mean absolutely no individual, has the right to violate the rights of the religious. Of course, that point shall be dismissed. Liberals believe they have the moral authority to force anything on anyone. That includes the religious conscience. The left is only for rights they believe exist.

We hope that the school sticks to its guns and will not relent. But whether it does or does not, it is good that it has called attention to such matters. The question of who should play contact sports with boys isn't really being considered properly. Neither is the issue of religious rights. What is it that so many people, particularly on the left, say? Open your mind when seeking answers. That doesn't seem, however, to apply to their thoughts.