Posted on 03/03/2008 11:08:00 AM PST by greyfoxx39
Religious and cultural traditions collide in odd ways.
• Is it right to tell election poll workers, assigned to Mormon church meeting houses, to not bring coffee, sodas or anything else caffeinated to refresh themselves during their long day tending to voters?
-SNIP-
First, let’s look at the polling place duties and sipping Maxwell House in the meeting house.
Longtime Tempe poll worker Mary Ann Hemmingson has signed up to work the polls for the March 11 election. She’ll spend her 14- or 15-hour day in a church, but no longer one that belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I never sign up to work at a Mormon church because the board workers there are not allowed to have any caffeine on the premises,” she said. “That means no coffee in the morning and no Diet Coke in the afternoon. ... You don’t want to see what I look like without my daily dose of caffeine. It’s not a pretty picture.”
“The Word of Wisdom” portion of the Doctrine and Covenants, put forth in 1833 by church founder and prophet Joseph Smith, says that “hot drinks are not for the body or belly.” Add to that what H. Burke Peterson, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, said in 1975: “We know that cola drinks contain the drug caffeine. We know caffeine is not wholesome nor prudent for the use of our bodies. It is only sound judgment to conclude that cola drinks and any others that contain caffeine or other harmful ingredients should not be used.”
Advising followers to restrict what they take into their bodies is one thing, but applying that mandate to those people who perform a public job inside their buildings in a one-day stint seems to be taking things too Far.
(Excerpt) Read more at eastvalleytribune.com ...
Exactly! And, as I've stated before, if there's a requirement to show respect for the mormon belief, do it by MOVING THE POLLS OUT OF THE CHURCH!
Well, after all, it is OUR buildings, not the government or yours, so we can dictate terms such as this for their use. This whole thing is a tempest in a water glass.
Then you would support the Muslim's requiring that all women precinct workers cover their faces and break for prayer 5 times a day?
If you want to use THEIR buildings, perhaps you will have to put up with THEIR rules.
It is sort of like inviting people to dinner. If you don’t want them to bring their illegal drugs, that should not be a problem. If it is, they should not accept the invitation.
What I an trying to get across to you is that if you borrow somebody’s building for your purposes, you have to go by their rules. Otherwise it is a taking and I don’t think any government wants to get into a taking issue over coffee or headscarves.
Property rights are a fundamental basis of a free republic such as ours.
I doubt that they would because they don’t want the rest of us in their sacred building.
So, mormons don't want coffee-drinkers in THEIR sacred ward houses?
If, as you say, " It is sort of like inviting people to dinner. If you don’t want them to bring their illegal drugs (coffee!), that should not be a problem. If it is, they should not accept the invitation"........ Voters are FORCED to vote in their specific precinct, not INVITED. Declining this invitation disenfranchises the voter.
If coffee-drinkers are not welcome in your "home" you should never issue the disenfranchising "invitation"! MOVE THE POLLING PLACE!
Goodness, but you certainly are upset. I never said the coffee drinkers should not be welcome, just the coffee. It is regrettable that you have a problem here. If this is your polling place, perhaps you should petition your local authorities to change the location to your home where you will provide whatever it is that you desire be provided.
I feel the love!
No, they are borrowed buildings. If Catholic Churches were used, would smoking be allowed on the altar? Come on, get serious here. The government is borrowing buildings that it does not own and doing so with the consent of the owners. If the government does not care for the conditions, the government is free to use its own buildings.
Good, then the following is right up your alley. :) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1980079/posts#comment?q=1
Or, why shouldn’t we set reasonable rules of conduct for our own buildings?
One would hope that the persons responsible for choosing election sites might evince some amount of common sense.
Should the mosque demand that folks turn toward Mecca and pray five times per day in order to work at the polling place, or to vote there, one would hope that the election board would see that those sorts of requirements would be too burdensome, and thus, would decline to use such a place.
On the other hand, it appears that the judgment in this case was that requiring people to ABSTAIN from the consumption of caffeinated beverages within the premises was a reasonable accommodation. My own view is that their judgment is very defensible; it is certainly reasonable to ask folks to abstain from bringing caffeinated beverages into the building.
sitetest
I’m a pretty heavy coffee drinker. Yet, I found that the last time I voted, I was able to refrain from drinking coffee for the three or four minutes I was in the firehouse waiting to vote.
In fact, I guess perhaps for safety reasons, one isn’t permitted to bring any sort of beverage or food into the firehouse where I vote when one votes.
Is that unreasonable?
sitetest
I’m an Episcopalian. If invited to dine at a Baptist friend’s house, I wouldn’t bring a bottle of wine even if for my own consumption ... it’s a respect thing, like you say. Paul even taught the lesson ...
Thank you for highlighting the absurdity that drinking coffee and/or tea is against your “reasonable” rules of conduct.
Such sinfullness! Oh that we weren’t all such good citizens of the United States and didn’t break Mormon rules of conduct while we cast our constitutionally created right to vote.
You are making it look more and more like the cult it truly is. Thank you OMM
I will not be touching anymore of your tarbabies in an attempt at shutting down discourse on this news/activism thread - - or attempt at getting this post banned to the “religion” section and then shut down due to “childish behavior” of a certain poster.
You have a good day ya hear! ;-)
“I’m an Episcopalian. If invited to dine at a Baptist friend’s house, I wouldn’t bring a bottle of wine even if for my own consumption ...”
Gee, I hope that you would survive going several hours, possibly, without a nip.
;-)
sitetest
IMO, it is certainly reasonable for a poll worker to expect to be able to have access to a LEGAL drink during a work shift of several hours, which was the original complaint.
You get into the same area here as with muslims taxi drivers who refuse to carry certain passengers who have guide dogs or carry or have imbibed alcohol..LEGAL activities. The taxis are possibly the property of the drivers. Defensible? Questionable
In both cases, persons are prohibited by restrictions of a religion OTHER THAN THEIR OWN from carrying out legal activities.
In the case of the taxis, there is a choice of other drivers.
In the case of the polling places, voters are forced to vote in a specific place.
I go weeks without a ‘nip’. If someone were invited to dine at my home, they would not be welcome if they brought illegal drugs in with them and I knew of it. I would feel they did not respect my rules in my home.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.