I think you’re going to get a completely consistent response from most ‘righties’: Home Depot has a right to fire the guy. Others have the right to organize a boycott or shop elsewhere if they find the firing offensive.
I’m completely confused by what principles you thought would come into conflict here.
Let me ask YOU a question: How would you feel if the person was fired because he refused to remove a ribbon pin in support of gay rights? How about if a Muslim woman refused to remove her veil? The ‘righty’ answer is still consistent: Home depot can fire them if it wishes, and we are free to not shop there, or to organize a boycott if we feel strongly enough about it. How about you?
And if you really wanted to have a reasonable debate and you weren’t just trying to bait people, you might have tried penning a more even-handed and factually correct OP.
This is flat-out wrong. First of all, being religious is not a ‘righty’ thing. Religion spans all political beliefs, as does atheism. Check out the religious status of the current occupant of the White House for confirmation. Second, ‘righties’ do not require any sort of religious mandate. I have not heard a single ‘righty’ call for Christianity to be the state religion, or for other religions to be persecuted. This includes the religious right. What they are sensitive to is what they perceive as being a lopsided attack on their faith under the guise of separation of church and state. For example, someone’s child being barred from giving a valedictorian speech because she wants to thank Jesus. That feels to them more like an attack on their religion than a protection of others against a state-supported church.
But ‘righties’ understand the difference between government and private industry. You might have gotten a more interesting result if you had asked how righties would feel if a citizen was not allowed into a government hearing because she was wearing an overtly Christian symbol, or if a student was told to remove a crucifix pendant while in school because it was a display of religion in a government setting.
“The many” are wrong. In any case, the employee wasn’t told that he couldn’t express or indulge his religious affiliation. He was told not to wear a pin as part of his work uniform. Unless his branch of Christianity requires the conspicuous display of this item, this argument doesn’t hold water.
As several people have pointed out, the way your posts are phrased, you do not sound as if you are not sincerely asking a question about what other people think, but looking for a “gotcha” against "the righties.
If he’s wearing the button in question in the news photo, I gotta say, that’s one big blue button. It’ll certainly clash with the standard orange Home Depot smock, so not only does he loves his country, he wants to be damn sure everybody notices he loves his country.
I’d fire ‘im just for bein’ a jerk!
I don’t see why a right-winger would have any conflict. They could be pissed as all hell that Home Depot fired the guy, while never questioning the idea that Home Depot has the legal right to fire whomever they want.
It’s not a Republican tenet that anything someone may do that’s objectionable should be illegal. They make think that in the areas of sexuality, but in employment and economics, it’s the Democrats who see it that way.
There’s a third angle here that hasn’t been explored, although I’m not implying it would create any new “drama”. I first thought of “why does WalMart hate America?” when I read this, since the phrase in question is from the Pledge.
Good question. If the button read “…indivisible” or “…and to the Republic” or “…to the flag” would there be the smug assumption that the “rightys” would get uppity as well?
Go ahead and argue that the two principles are not in conflict (and frankly, I agree with you on that one), but then don’t also try to argue that nobody’s arguing that.
Like other conservatives here have said, Home Depot was perfectly entitled to fire the guy. He had decided to make an issue of his patriotism and Christianity and was trying to push their buttons. Home Depot had allowed him to wear his non-standard issue flag pin for quite a while. Then he started bringing his bible to work and finally went too far.
But having said that, like Smiling Bandit, I believe in tolerance when it comes to religious matters. I favor unfettered display of Christmas scenes and whatever religious symbolism people of various other religions want to display. I think people should be free to believe however they want, including atheism, without sanction, scorn or intimidation from people with other beliefs.
I also think it’s ridiculous that things in this country have degenerated to the point where a store like Home Depot feels it has to suppress the mere mention of God for fear of “offending” someone. People need to be more tolerant of other people’s freedoms and less eager to take offense when someone’s beliefs are different than theirs. Somehow it has gotten to be the case (well, not actually ‘somehow,’ but that’s a subject for another thread) that many people have come to feel we have a virtual Constitutional right not to be offended. Again, it’s ridiculous. People think differently than you do. Get over it.
