Religious Inclinations

If you agree to do a job, can you limit how you do it so that it meets your religious standards?

The question came to mind when I saw an article about cab drivers in Minneapolis who refuse to take passengers who are transporting alcohol, because carrying alcohol, they say, is contrary to their personal religious beliefs. Note that they aren't talking about drunk passengers; they're talking about drunk or sober people carrying alcohol. In response, the authority controlling the taxis is arranging for cabs to have a special light on their roof; this light would mean that the driver has these beliefs, and intends to act in accordance with them.

It startled me, and then I thought of the pharmacists for major stores who refuse to dispense the morning-after pill because the use of the pill is contrary to their religious beliefs. I thought that was pretty wacky, at the time, and I still do -- but it brings me to realize that religious intensity might have a way of affecting us more than just through the 'conventionally fanatical', if I can put it that way.

Should we condone this sort of behavior? Is it reasonable for a person to accept a job knowing that part of the job will be to do things they don't want to do? I think that it revolves around the ease of an alternative. If I can simply bypass one cab for the next, no problem, but if you're the only easily available cab, thats a problem. I'll take you someplace not terribly out of your way where you can quickly get a different cab? Similarly, if the pharmacist who won't dispense has an alternate dispenser easily available -- not on call from home, not at our other store four miles from here, but right here, right now -- no problem. But if those conditions don't apply, then it's a problem. We'll ask you to go elsewhere but we'll give you a discount on the price of the drug?

Alternatives. As people get rigid in their positions, we need them.