Saying Nothing Might Have Been Better

The North American Religious Liberty Association (NARLA) issued the following release following the U.S. Post Office’s announcement that later in 2013 it will cease home and business delivery of mail on Saturdays.

Adventists Celebrate The End of Saturday Mail Delivery in the United States In what Seventh-day Adventist Church Associate Counsel Todd McFarland hailed as "great news for Adventists and people who keep Sabbath throughout the United States," the U.S. Postal Service announced today that it would cease Saturday mail delivery beginning August 1. Saturday package delivery will continue, and post offices will remain open on Saturdays, but with reduced hours. The move was motivated by tens of billions of dollars in losses in recent years, and should save the agency about $2 billion a year. However the decision has a positive, albeit unintended, consequence as well. "For decades the USPS has been the single most troublesome employer for those seeking Sabbath workplace accommodation. Halting Saturday delivery will not only prevent many future Sabbath observance conflicts for Adventists employed by the post office, but will help resolve current situations in which mail carrier-church members are experiencing discrimination," said McFarland. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that job discrimination complaints continue to grow at an alarming rate in the United States, with charges based on religious discrimination jumping by 9.5 percent in 2011, the largest increase of any category.

While I don’t disagree with the release in that it will become easier for many postal workers who believe in a particular religious practice – that of observing the Sabbath on Saturday by refraining from work – I’m not sure that this release is appropriate.

The problems I see are as follows:

First, the release conflates an implied religious liberty victory (“great news”) with a change in employment practice necessitated by economic and business conditions.

Second, the release implies that a unilateral change that affects all employees for the sake of a few (“Adventists and for people who keep Sabbath”) is more valuable and morally right than the right and freedom for those who don’t believe in Sabbath to be on Saturday to work and obtain income.

Third, in spite of its source from NARLA, the release fails to address religious liberty in any meaningful way. By writing, “For decades the USPS has been the single most troublesome employer for those seeking Sabbath workplace accommodation. Halting Saturday delivery will not only prevent many future Sabbath observance conflicts for Adventists employed by the post office, but will help resolve current situations in which mail carrier-church members are experiencing discrimination”, the release seems to communicate that legal arguments, logic, and ethics don’t matter as long as we (NARLA) get the results we want. The statement makes the implicit assertion that “our view is the only right one and any that conflicts with ours is wrong”. It is essentially the same philosophical position that is held by the USPS.

I think it would have been better if NARLA had just kept silent on this development, or if it had to say something, to temper its statement.