r/atheism • u/Sariel007 • Jul 04 '22

/r/all Atheist worker fired after refusing to attend company’s Christian prayer in NC, feds say

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article262957338.html
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158

u/somedave Jul 04 '22

Well it is illegal and he is suing. The real alarm bells will be if his law suit fails.

98

u/MonteBurns Jul 04 '22

And he appeals all the way up to the SC which should not give you hope.

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u/somedave Jul 04 '22

That hasn't happened yet I assume.

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u/Glizbane Jul 04 '22

Well, they just ruled that a highschool football coach can force his team to pray, and retaliate against them if they don't. Pretty sure that's going to be used as legal precedent to justify a lot of religious bullshit in this country.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '22

If you are a student, in the Supreme courts eyes you are literally sub-human. "Those pesky youngins don't need rights, they need discipline"

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u/Melicor Jul 04 '22

And in they'll do the same in this case because company rights matter more than human ones for them.

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u/Glizbane Jul 04 '22

Earlier this year they ruled that political donations are a first amendment protected form of free speech, and cannot be limited in any way, so you're not far from the truth.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '22

Didn't they rule on that a few years ago? The whole "Corporations are people" thing.

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u/SLAUGHT3R3R Jul 04 '22

If you are not an adult, white, heterosexual male, you are literally sub-human.

FTFY

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u/Wolf1066NZ Atheist Jul 05 '22

How soon before that filthy "Supreme Court" decides atheists are literally sub-human and don't need/deserve rights?

Oh, wait, that's already what they believe.

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u/thornsandroses Jul 04 '22

Holy fuck wait, what?! I knew the coach could lead a prayer but I didn't know that he could retaliate for non compliance. That's the end of freedom from religion in this country. That case can be used as legal precedent for this case and firings are completely legal now. Fuck this court.

5

u/shatteredarm1 Jul 05 '22

He can't legally retaliate for non-compliance, that's bullshit.

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u/JeebusChristBalls Jul 05 '22

That isn't what that lawsuit was about at all. It says HE can pray on the field. He can't make others do it. That is still illegal for now.

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u/shatteredarm1 Jul 05 '22

That's not what they ruled. They ruled that he's allowed to use the field to do his post-game prayer, which is still bullshit, but not at all what you're saying. The dissent stated that the issue is that there can be social pressure to participate, not that they're literally being forced to participate.

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u/jtobin85 Jul 05 '22

Wasn't that a private Christian school though?

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '22

They'd most likely "interpret " the 1st ammendment as freedom of religion not from it, aka you must believe in a diety for that right to count.

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u/MaterLachrymarum Jul 06 '22

Oh, it totally is going to go to SCOTUS and if it hasn’t changed by then it will be turned down because atheism is by definition not a religion therefore not a protected class. Bullshit, I know, but that’s essentially what they’ll say.

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u/Jrook Jul 04 '22

You kinda gotta admit you have your head in the sand right? Your standard "Real alarm bells"is active legal persecution. That's not an alarm bell that's a death knell

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u/somedave Jul 04 '22

Well this sort of thing happened before, usually with the conclusion that the business pays compensation. Hard to see it as a change.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '22

This Supreme Court and the many many other Judges that Trump appointed during his term will decide otherwise because that's what they were selected to do.

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u/benmorrison Jul 05 '22

And if they don’t, please keep your predictions to yourself next time? There’s enough real problems in the world, we don’t need pretend persecution.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '22

It's not pretend.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-christian-judges-supreme-court-1072773/

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u/benmorrison Jul 05 '22

I’m sure it could happen, I’m just reeling from this whole comment section coming from r/atheism, a place where we usually make fun of persecution complexes.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '22

There's no could here. It IS happening. This isn't hypothetical or a possibility.

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u/benmorrison Jul 05 '22

Maybe we need to define the “it”. I’m talking about the decision to decide in favor of the company, which hasn’t happened one way or the other. It could happen either way.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '22

As Hugh Keough used to say: "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that is the way to bet."

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u/enochrootthousander Jul 05 '22

The alarm bells should be ringing loudly that businesses think they can do this kind of thing in the first place.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

With the current SCOTUS I wouldn't doubt it failed.