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News & ArtsThursday, July 29, 2010
Religion The Conscience of a Bus Driver
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 2:56 PM
Poor, poor right-wing nutjobs. It seems that everywhere they go these days, they're being forced to tolerate other people who think or look different than them. It's just not fair, I tells ya.
A Texas bus driver has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, claiming he was fired for his religious beliefs after refusing to transport a client to a Planned Parenthood office, court documents showed Wednesday.
Edwin A. Graning worked for the Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS) near Austin, Texas, for less than a year before he was let go in January. At the time, he told his supervisor that, "in good conscience, he could not take someone to have an abortion," according to the lawsuit. Graning is an ordained Christian minister.
Level-headed business owners who live near this guy (if any) should just start refusing to serve him. "Sorry, Mr. Graning, but I can't in good conscience allow you to see this movie/order that burger/buy that shirt. It's against my religion." Blacklist him. Let's all start arbitrarily refusing to do our jobs for certain people, see how that works out.
1
Do people really think that that's all that goes on at Planned Parenthood? I used to get my pap smears and pick up my birth control there--never had to use them for an abortion.
4
I understand the temptation to invoke a little schadenfreude Anthony, but really, why continue to enable his persecution complex? His type simply doesn't possess the critical faculties to apprehend the whole "Do unto others..." approach in the first place.
5
@1 I'm sure his type is against pap smears and birth control too- since they promote promiscuous behavior... sluts deserve cervical cancer and pregnancy obviously.
7
If I, a Jewish boy, were to refuse to transport a client to a Wendy's because they planned to get a Baconator, they'd throw me in the looney bin!
8
If you don't want to have to do the things a bus driver does, don't be a bus driver.
For fuck's sake.
For fuck's sake.
10
Oh fer cripes sake, what's next? A vegan bus driver refusing to take somebody to McDonald's??
I agree w/#8 - It's just like those born-again pharmacists who get all veklempt when some lady tries to get the morning-after pill.
If you don't wanna fulfill all parts of the job, don't TAKE the damned job in the first place, ya maroons!
I agree w/#8 - It's just like those born-again pharmacists who get all veklempt when some lady tries to get the morning-after pill.
If you don't wanna fulfill all parts of the job, don't TAKE the damned job in the first place, ya maroons!
12
@11 Actually, she could have been going to get an abortion for an accidental artificial insemination.
13
Does he also refuse to transport people of other religions to their churches/temples/mosques/whatever?
Because that also would pretty clearly be a violation of his own religion.
Because that also would pretty clearly be a violation of his own religion.
14
I don't get Pro-Life people at all. If I thought Planned Parenthood was a murder factory, I'd firebomb the place. It's easy, pretty safe at night, I almost certainly wouldn't get caught if I did it late at night.... The vast majority of them just whine and try to shame women.
It's kind of like they don't really believe abortion is murder.
It's kind of like they don't really believe abortion is murder.
15
Dwight, there lies the road to Hell (literally). Don't go there. I know enough about weaponry that if I ever decided to go out in a "blaze of glory," the casualty rate would be stupefying. That's never going to happen, though, just as you're never going to bomb a clinic, because, you know, we're mostly sane.
I suppose it's a good thing that only the real crazies do shit like that.
I suppose it's a good thing that only the real crazies do shit like that.
17
@Dwight Moody-I don't know if you thought you were being funny, but you aren't. Every clinic in the country fears being attacked in this way. Antis are crazy and they will do that kind of thing. They are not to be taken for granted.
And, btw, security cameras work 24/7.
And, btw, security cameras work 24/7.
19
I recently watched The Atheism Tapes with Jonathan Miller (I'm sure they're probably available on YouTube or something), and in the episode where he interviews Steven Weinberg, he (Weinberg) makes a good distinction about the harm that's done in the name of religion vs. by religion. When it's done in the name of religion, it usually has some other undertone behind it - some political or ideological or whatever reason - but religion is only a means to an end and thus the people intent on doing harm can sometimes be bargained or reasoned with, or otherwise negotiated out of committing harm.
What's truly frightening is the harm done directly by religion... done by people who actually, truly, deeply believe that their god or whatever is commanding them and looking favorably upon their destructive actions. That's the kind of harmful intent that can't really be negotiated or reasoned with, because the person doing it isn't doing it for fame or money or revenge or anything... they're doing it because they actually believe what they're doing is right and correct and good and holy.
Anyway. The Atheism Tapes, with Jonathan Miller. Pretty interesting.
What's truly frightening is the harm done directly by religion... done by people who actually, truly, deeply believe that their god or whatever is commanding them and looking favorably upon their destructive actions. That's the kind of harmful intent that can't really be negotiated or reasoned with, because the person doing it isn't doing it for fame or money or revenge or anything... they're doing it because they actually believe what they're doing is right and correct and good and holy.
Anyway. The Atheism Tapes, with Jonathan Miller. Pretty interesting.
20
What you're saying kinda reminds me of the letter from Ben Franklin to Thomas Payne Paul Constant referred to in his Glenn Beck thread earlier.
Yes, Virginia, there really is a God (or whatever you want to call it), but it has absolutely nothing to do with all this fucking craziness.
Yes, Virginia, there really is a God (or whatever you want to call it), but it has absolutely nothing to do with all this fucking craziness.
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