Posted on 10/26/2009 3:35:43 PM PDT by EveningStar
Last Halloween, Gina Uberti took vacation days to celebrate the Wiccan new year in Salem, Massachusetts, the town infamously known for the witch trials of 1692 that ended with the hanging of 14 women.
Less than a month after Uberti took part in the festivities of Samhain, one of the holiest days in the Wiccan calendar, she was fired from her job as a district sales manager for Bath & Body Works.
(Excerpt) Read more at workforce.com ...
These so-called “wiccans” need to move out of their fantasy world and back into reality.
These so-called “wiccans” need to move out of their fantasy world and back into reality.
I agree. They will be devoured just like everyone else when Cthulhu rises.
You know, whether you agree with someone’s religion or not, our constitution still guarantees freedom OF religion. She followed all proper procedures at her place of employment to take a vacation for a religious holiday for a religion she practices, and because of an ignorant boss who thinks that Wicca has anything whatsoever to do with “the devil” (it doesn’t, in case you also happen to believe such a thing), she is fired.
If we want people to allow freedom OF the practice of Christianity, then we have to allow that same freedom to practitioners of other faiths. Her vacation did not infringe on anyone’s rights, she wasn’t preaching her religion to others (proselytizing is also not part of Wicca), and simply requests the ability to practice her own faith.
Why settle for a lesser evil?
That being said, if they are hot, they can call themselves whatever they want.
I agree with you.
Ia Cthulhu fhtagn! Summon the Deep Ones and organize a boycott posthaste!
Is Wicca a recognized religion?
They threatened to turn the Joint Chiefs into newts.
I have already been in contact with the Galveston Deep Ones and we are going to sign a petition. They gave me this nice trinket for my troubles.
Yes, as of 1972.
Since when did it become the boss’s business to dictate where you can go and what you can do on your vacation?
ping
Okay, I’ll clarify — 1972 it was federally recognized for tax purposes as a religion. The first court case that brought it into national recognition was in 1985. As there is no central authority for Wiccans, it’s been on a group by group basis of people with same/similar beliefs essentially set up by Gardener in the 1960s. (Not sure as I’ve only done an overview of the religion and not an indepth study.)
I am not sure that Wiccan beliefs require that they take this time of year off.
You can’t just make something up and then demand accomodation for it. Otherwise we’d all be making up religions and expecting days off. I recall studying cases on this subject in civics class.
Someone is lying.
When in doubt, ALWAYS believe the aggrieved employee.
Confusing Wiccans and witches is amusing to me. This is because that while most of what people associate with witchcraft is from Europe, the bulk of practicing witches are in central and South America, where they are pretty much a professional class.
That is, we have doctors, counselors and consultants, and they have witches who perform the pre-scientific version of those skills. Importantly, in their societies, the same kind of people migrated into the profession. So if you want to know the personality type of a witch, look at your family doctor.
Some years ago, in fact, a medical doctor managed to persuade the equivalent of the healing witches medical society of the value of antibiotics. So while they still perform their healing rituals for their customers, burning candles and making incantations, most of them are firm believers in the power of penicillin as particularly potent magic.
Whatever works. Who can ask for more from the family doctor?
According to the article, she asked for the vacation a year in advance, and her request was approved.
To me, the only valid reason to fire someone is for non-performance of their job. What they do on their own time is their own business.
If you think you are going to get fired for incompetence, run out and buy some weird symbols and start saying that you just joined a weird religion. When you get fired you can claim it’s discrimination.
Festivus
Getting fired from a mall store is like getting evicted from a dumpster.
Women involved in Wicca are almost always head cases.
Mall store managers are stupid.
Mall store corporate spokespeople always sound like the Stepford Wives.
Bottom line: She could have been fired because she sucked as an employee or she could have been fired because she was a Wiccan. If the store manager fired her because she was a Wiccan, that’s stupid. If he fired her because she was a Wiccan and he TOLD her that’s why he fired her, that was double stupid. Store employees are generally “at will” which means they can be let go for any of a number of performance reasons.
Usually, what governmental agencies will do is “eliminate a position” so the employee is not fired, but “downsized.” They wait a couple of months and “create a new position.” They are under no obligation to hire the old employee back.
It’s also possible she’s lying.
Wow. Stereotype much?
“...the bulk of practicing witches are in central and South America, where they are pretty much a professional class.”
Boy, I bet *that’s* a tough union to deal with!
Sure you can, it is called Kwanzaa.
Gunner
You do realize that many Christian Holidays have Pagan roots..Christmas is not the actual birth date of Christ.
you need to your broaden your horizons.. you give new meaning to the phrase “ignorance is bliss”
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Paganism/dp/002864266X
Actually, there is not and has never been a religion called "Paganism". Paganism is a classification of religion and not a belief system itself. Originating from the Latin word pagus, meaning "village" (and, in passing, paganus, "villager"), it carries the sense of our word "bumpkin" in contrast with the word rusticus, which the ancients used to convey a more literal sense of 'country'. When first used by more cosmopolitan ancients, who entrusted themselves to the various patron gods of their respective home cities, it was meant to be an insulting, demeaning, and dismissive label and NO adherent to an original 'Pagan' religion would have accepted it. The modern usage of the term by self-nominating "Pagans" issues from a lack of knowledge in their professed area of interest.
LOL and the bliss continues... Keep the crosses burning Billbob...Pagan is a category of religions (non-monotheistic) but not a religion itself. It has rites, rituals, sacrements and ceremonies. There are sacred days and observances.
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