Religious freedom, if any

heipauli · 02-02-09 8:21 am

For two years a discussion has been on rampant at the pages of Finnish Medical Association re: the circumcision of newborn boys. Most of the participants have supported the idea that circumcision for religious reasons, made to minors without their consent equals mutilation and should be punishable and those doctors, who are making those operations, should be expelled from FMA. Doctors having a Jewish background have an opposite view. I understand that in United States circumcising boys born to WASP families is a quite common practice. Here it is not. But back to Christianity. And religious freedom. The latter is applicable to parents only, not to minors. There are some known and documented cases, admittely rare, cases with minors studying their way out from their parent's religion AND to another religion. More often has it happened that one has studied him/herself out of Christianity to atheism. For example my brother, 8½ years younger than I, while attending the denominational school Toivonlinna, quite openly declared that "if SDA's really believed, what they claim, they would do so and so". To be fair, he later on joined Adventism, but only after he had completed his medical education. So he avoided all the handicaps I had to face when I was in university. IOW, he had seen the duplicity, the discrepancy between words and actions. But he had no other option available than trying to make denomination to act more consistently. But what would have happened if I - admittedly I was not made of the right stuff - had studied my way out of Adventism to for example to Lutheranism or even Catholicism and had gone to my father when I was 15 - 16 years old and told that "papa, I was cancel my membership in SDA and join RCC and become a RCC priest!". It would have been vain to appeal to Religious Freedom Act, because it offered only an unidirectional door; one could enter a denomination with one's parents' consent, but not withdraw without parental consent. What would actually happened , would have been my father taking his belt from waist and perhaps allowing me choose between the buckle end and the other end. And if I had run away from home and seeked for an asylum in a RCC or Lutheran family, or even resorted to child welfare officials, that would have been in vain, because parents owned their children and were able to do anything with them, short of killing, permanently injuring or making incest. At that time "light" beating was allowable; nowadays even pulling hair is forbidden.

don · 02-02-09 9:13 pm

Religious Freedom, For All I beleive it is important for us to recognize the freedom inherent in the human spirit. We once had a student who practiced Islam. I offered to help him arrange for his prayer times. He did not want to pursue it. I wondered what hurdles I would have had to cross to have helped him. We have on rare occasions held school on Sunday. At the time, one of our students was from a devout Roman Catholic family. The school accommodated their desire to be in church rather than school. IMO, the church should lead the way in how it treats those among them who have different religious practices and values. .

heipauli · 02-06-09 9:28 am

Quote: "The Kouvola Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court’s decision that pastor Ari Norro pay 320 euros in fines for refusing to work with a female colleague. The case is a precedent in that it is the first time the courts were forced to rule on religious freedom and equality in the modern Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church. In the spring of 2007 Norro refused to work with a female pastor just before a church service in Hyvinkää. During the incident in question minister Ari Norro, a guest preacher in Hyvinkää, told his local colleague, pastor Petra Pohjanraito, that she would have to let him perform the church service alone. Norro then asked Pohjanraito to leave his side just minutes before the scheduled service was set to begin. Norro said it was impossible for him to perform his duties alongside a woman and had demanded that charges against him be dropped. Lower court also cast blame on vicar Last year the Hyvinkää District Court ordered that Norro pay 320 euros in fines as punishment for his discriminatory behaviour. At the time the court also found the residing vicar guilty of work discrimination since he did not make an effort to stop Norro’s bullying. The District Court ruled that Pohjanraito had been inappropriately dismissed from doing her job. In 2006 the episcopal conference concluded that male ministers do not have the right to refuse working with female colleagues. Around one-third of pastors in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church are women. " Source: <a href="http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/02/male_pastor_fined_for_refusing_to_work_with_female_colleague_529637.html" target=_top>http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/02/male_pastor_fin ed_for_refusing_to_work_with_female_colleague_5296 37.html</a>

maggie · 02-07-09 7:52 pm

IMO, the church should lead the way in how it treats those among them who have different religious practices and values.<blockquote>Saving Fishes From Drowning A pious man explained to his followers, It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scoop out 100 fishes. I place the fishes on the bank where they flop and twirl. 'Don't be scared,' I tell those fishes, 'I am saving you from drowning.' Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still, yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and I sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes. --Anonymous</blockquote>

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#1 02-02-09 8:21 am

Religious freedom, if any

#2 02-02-09 9:13 pm

Re: Religious freedom, if any

#3 02-06-09 9:28 am

Re: Religious freedom, if any

#4 02-07-09 7:52 pm

Re: Religious freedom, if any

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