School makes RFID solution for tracking/library/food stuffs.
Student objects based upon religious and privacy grounds.
Judge granted her a reprieve based upon Freedom of Speech and Religion grounds.
I do have a good deal of knowledge and understanding of different religions and beliefs. I know of none other that specifically mentions the "Mark of The Beast" and the full context mentioned in Revelations.
So are they preparing a non-Christian tracking service?
I don't think that we can say these people are trying to create a non-Christian tracking service. I doubt they are acting with (that extreme a degree of) malice.
That doesn't change the fact that the effect, regardless of intent, is approximately the same.
I think a sensible way of handling religious exemptions, to prevent giving special privilege to those with more restrictive religions (or those with religions more open to loose interpretations, or simply those with religions), is to permit anybody of any religion or lack of religion to claim religious exemptions that anybody else could.
If a Christian student is allowed to opt-out of the RFID system, then a Buddhist student or an atheist student should similarly be allowed to opt-out, even though they lack the "mark of the beast" stuff in their belief system.
I would concur as well. I believe they were doing this RFID system for 2 reasons: the students, and the contract. However, the reprieve allows all Christians to exempt themselves from this program.
My underlying worry is the Government will make further all-encompassing rules on the hopes that few are able to be exempt from them. This will be done by a religious test in front of a Judge.
However, it is all the worse that this occurs at a secondary school. With the rule of in loco parentis, it really is a dictatorship and a prison. At least outside that compulsed system, there is more regular rule of law.
Thankfully religious exemption only kicks in for things that ultimately are pretty trivial (DMV photo requirements, for example), or in limited settings (such as schools, where as you said loco parentis is in effect).
There are probably a few counterexamples, but the only ones I can think of are historic. You can now claim conscientious objector status in the event of a draft for non-religious reasons, though this was not always the case.
Actually, (and this surprises me greatly I must say) the US Selective Service System would serve as a great example for how religious exemption in other situations should work.
>Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims.
I quite like that; seems very reasonable to me. If all religious exemptions were reworded into something like that, I would be a very happy man.
School makes RFID solution for tracking/library/food stuffs. Student objects based upon religious and privacy grounds. Judge granted her a reprieve based upon Freedom of Speech and Religion grounds.
I do have a good deal of knowledge and understanding of different religions and beliefs. I know of none other that specifically mentions the "Mark of The Beast" and the full context mentioned in Revelations.
So are they preparing a non-Christian tracking service?