Another example of toxic diversity
Texas law, I mean. Can’t allow last rites (I don’t subscribe to RCC myself) because then we’d have to allow some diversity religion access too.
This is a confusing article.
It’s confusing because the current case before the court has to do with a prisoner who is a Baptist(?) but the precedent being cited is for a Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church has very precise rituals for receiving last confession from the dying and the final blessing of the deceased. Whether or not you agree with them, they are administered in a restrained manner by an ordained priest. There’s no such guarantee with respect to the conduct of the pastor that the condemned prisoner wants to have in the execution chamber with him.
Although the article reports the state framing it’s objections to the pastor’s presence in the form of interfering with the actual process of the execution, it does also mention detracting from the solemnity of the occasion.
My concern would be that, once the gates are opened to allow anyone claiming to be the condemned person’s religious counselor into the execution chamber, that it will turn into a total clown show when some offbeat religion decides to do it’s thing during the execution. This is what inevitably happens when you have people with their own agendas (to include the condemned person mischievously wanting to “make a statement”) interjecting themselves into the process.
Since you can’t discriminate against one religion over another, there’s no way to allow religions with acceptable practices with respect to the dying and dead into the execution chamber while excluding the ones that would cause a disruption through untoward behavior.
That’s just another “free speech/free exercise” ACLU lawsuit waiting to happen.