May 28, 2005
Unclear on the Concept Department
Richard Sherman
Eric Zorn has an article about Richard Sherman who was almost hired to teach science in High School District 211 in Palatine. Last Monday, however, the officials at the District changed their minds and decided that they weren't going to hire Sherman to teach there after all.
Eric Zorn:
It couldn't be--could it?--that officials at High School District 211 in Palatine yanked a job offer away from a prospective teacher this week simply because administrators don't like the religious views of that teacher's father?
...
Sherman, 23, is the son of civil rights activist and atheist leader Rob Sherman of Buffalo Grove, whose relentless crusades of the last 20 years, most over church-state issues, have alienated many who don't share his interpretation of the Constitution or God.
One of Zorn's readers, Andy, responds:
Richard Sherman doesn't have a God-given right (pun intended) to work at District 211. The district can hire whomever they determine is the best candidate for the job. All they are guilty of is poor judgment in even considering hiring this guy. There are enough liberal wackos attempting to poison the minds of our youth working in the public schools already...
Well, Andy is right that Richard Sherman may not have a God-given right to work at the District, but he certainly has a Congress-given right. Employment descrimination against an applicant on the basis of his beliefs about religion has long been against the law.
Good and thoughtful people sometimes disagree about whether the proper response to discrimination by private employers is government regulation. Some people feel that getting the government involved interferes with the natural progression towards tolerance, or that it causes problems that are worse than the problem of intolerance, or that the private employment decision simply isn't a proper matter for government scrutiny.
But this isn't a private employment decision. High School District 211 is the goverment. Maybe the government shouldn't force other people to be tolerant, but the government damned well ought to be religiously tolerant itself. The establishment clause is in the constitution for very good reasons.
Oh, and one more thing. By all accounts, Richard Sherman isn't an atheist like his father.
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