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Religious Exemption
Religious Exemption
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Religious Exemption
Religious exemptions are laws and policies that have been put in place to allow individuals not to comply with state laws that may be contradicting their religious beliefs. Individuals, churches, or organizations are expected to seek exemption from these laws by following the required protocol to acquire an exemption letter. However, other favorable policies are created to supplement the ones they have been exempted from. For instance, an individual may not want to take the Covid-19 vaccine due to their religious beliefs, underlying medical conditions, or even personal autonomy but instead will need to strictly follow the guidelines of prevention of the spread of covid. Religious differences can be a point of division in a country and if other people’s religious beliefs are not respected then there will be no peace among the people. Therefore, exempting people from the state laws that may seem to be burdening their religious beliefs is one way of promoting peace in a country.
Religious exemptions or any other kind of exemptions will always come at a cost. If the state is helping you get rid of a burden on your religious faith or belief then you should also be willing to commit to a different burden that does not affect your religious stand. The Covid-19 vaccine has brought the biggest challenge upon the ministry of health whereby everyone is supposed to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the virus, but many people have had the issue of wanting to be exempted from taking that vaccine-based on their health or religious beliefs. These are genuine concerns that an individual may be suffering from a health condition that does not allow them to take the vaccine. Religious beliefs also have to be taken into consideration if the vaccine does not align with their beliefs, for instance, how or the products used for its manufacture. As much as many options have been put down to deal with both the religious beliefs and underlying health conditions, the personal autonomy of an individual is still at play and should be respected.
Therefore, democracy is put to test here and the government and law enforcers have to be keen when handling these issues. The consequences of being exempted from taking the vaccine may include being restricted from public places such as restaurants, always putting on masks around people even indoors, and maybe even not taking up some job positions. This will be a fair point of intersection between state laws and religious beliefs if at all it is worth it. Before covid-19 happened, religious exemptions were in existence and people whose beliefs were burdened by the state laws were exempted. For instance, the flu season happened three years ago. The health workers who could not take the vaccination were asked to use face masks throughout their time of duty and use PPEs effectively to avoid contracting or spreading the flu. It was also the responsibility of the individual to report in case they experience any symptoms of the flu. The covid virus cannot be an exception; the same precautions can be taken for people who do not want to get vaccinated because of their beliefs, health conditions, or personal autonomy.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, allows an individual or organization to seek or request an exemption if the laws contradict with their religious beliefs that they sincerely hold. I would like to be exempted from getting the covid vaccination because of my underlying health condition and trying to cheat my immunity for the moment without knowing the long-term effects does not sit well with me. Also, my religious belief does not allow me to take the vaccine especially with the fact that it has been manufactured from experimenting on fetal cells. Lastly, my autonomy is a clear point that my right to make a moral judgment about my health and decline what I do not need. Therefore, I request that you respectfully accept my exemption for I will take extra precautions in ensuring the prevention of spreading covid-19 even in my line of duty as a health worker.
RELIGION AND DIETARY CHOICES
RELIGION AND DIETARY CHOICES
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Introduction
Religion is a system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things relative to sacred things that have bound together and set apart some of the beliefs and practices to conform to a single moral community which is the church. According to Emile Durkheim, religion impacts giving meaning and purpose to life reinforce social unity and stability, and it’s also an agent of social control, thus strengthening social order. Many sociologists have developed some interest in this topic of study to understand religion’s role towards humankind and their behavior in society. This paper illustrates the impact of religion on various social factors such as food, physical spaces, deviance, sexuality, healing and intervention, social change, and cultural constructs.
Religion and Dietary Choices
The choice of food by individuals is based on various factors. Some of the factors are internal, while other factors are external. A healthy diet is vital for growth and healthy body development. Rising cases of lifestyle diseases have resulted in people eating foods they regard healthy and religions guiding their followers on what they should feed on, to demonstrate their faith or maintain their health (Sabaté, 2004).
The most common religions include Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Jews. Diversity of the affiliations causes different dietary requirements, with Christianity bearing few restrictions. Among Christians, Individuals are compelled to forego alcohol and meat during certain periods, including the Fridays on the Lenten period. Muslims eat halal foods, including fruit, vegetable, and eggs. Meat and their products must be from halal slaughtered animals. Haram foods discouraged for Muslim consumption include pork, crustaceans, on-halal animal-derived additives such as gelatin or suet, alcohol any foods that contain alcoholic ingredients.
Most of the Hindus are Lacto-vegetarian (meat and eggs) avoidants; their meals comprise lamb, chicken, or fish. Hindus consider the cow as a holy animal, and they refrain from taking beef, but they feed on dairy products. Animal-derived fats are discouraged together with alcohol. Some Hindus choose not to feed on ghee, milk, onions, eggs, coconut, garlic, domestic fowl, or salted pork. During the Ramadhan period, Muslims fast and refrain from consuming anything between sunrise and sunset with the exemption of pregnant, breastfeeding, menstruating women, children under the age of 12, older adults, and people with preexisting conditions.
Sikhs are vegetarians; however, they are granted the freedom to decide what type of meat to feed on as long as they avoid slaughtered animals and alcohol. Judaism takes Kosher’s food, which means food must meet Kashrut standards and be suitable and pure. Kosher does not put any restrictions on food from particular groups. Some of the aspects cut across various sects.
The diet varieties make it so accommodative for the refugees because they will have a sense of belonging depending on what they feed. Based on their religious guidance, they will be comfortable in their escape countries.
Religion, Inequality, and Conflict
Karl Marx, in his work, described religion as the opiate of the masses, and it’s also a root cause for refugee migration (Bottomore & Rubel, 1957). Many people subscribe to religion which makes them happy with their conditions. Karl Marx those that people should rise from the religious ways of thinking by indicating that many people tend to look at religion from a poverty point of view. Their thoughts are tied to God using poverty to test the faith of the poor people or because people have gone against him and the consequence is poverty. Poor people might be forced to think that there is a reward awaiting after suffering. Society is disadvantaged by making the poor accept their poor fate, which is comforting for the refugees and increasing social inequality in nations.
Religion and other institutions have a different approach towards gender and inequality. However, they have been able to maneuver to help shift gender paradigms by working with communities to lift stigmas, ending traditional practices like Female Genital Mutilation, and combating discrimination and violence related to gender and sexual orientation. Christians referenced their thoughts about women and subordination from the bible, which are traditional views of how women should live their lives (Lummis & Nesbitt, 2000). They did not regard women so much since she is supposed to be always headed by a man negatively impacts society and other institutions to support women’s inferiority despite their efforts and empowerment.
Places of worship have been a source of social conflict, with the beliefs breeding so much judgment and suffering among people in the society. In different countries, the domination of some religious affiliation results in the insubordination of the rest. The differences have aroused wars, persecutions, and killings since ancient times.
Harsh judgment on people by the self-righteous Christians has also caused suffering among the people with the freedom of speech, dressing, and even lifestyles being forced by churches. Despite all this, the church remains the source of comfort to all refugees who seek hope and shelter. Some of the religious affiliations have managed to protect the refugees by creating safe spaces for them and championing their rights and freedom without causing any disruptions in society.
Sexual abuse was a common problem in religion. Many cases were caused by religious people, including pastors and priests who hide their selfish needs. Young and older adults have glorified the religious leaders and even entrust their lives with them. Some break the trust and go ahead to abuse their followers from children to adults sexually (McGrath-Merkle, 2009). The church hierarchy does little or nothing to prevent such incidences of abuse from happening. In any case, they pay lump sums of money to cease the follow-up of those cases giving more room for sexual abusers.
In recent years, through education and civilization, the churches have developed strategies to protect their members through sensitization and support various policies favoring gender protectionism. Clergy members are now taken action to protect members of the congregation and the society at large. The refugees can find solace in churches.
Culture and Religion
When moving to different countries, refugees may be overwhelmed due to their movement out of their original country. They experience multiple worries that can impact their mental health, one of them including the loss of their cultural norms. The refugees contribute to the richness of the diversity of cultures. Before adjusting to the new cultural changes, they require mental health practitioners and religious leaders who offer comfort during the migration period. During this period, they can interact with different people and even join their religious affiliations to sense belonging.
Physical Spaces and Religion
The bible teaches Christians not to mistreat individuals residing among them when living in your land. Instead, they should be treated as native-borns and be loved. Some nations receive the refugees with a lot of tolerance bearing in mind the heartbreaking stories and trauma they might have gone through. The religions volunteer to erect some temporary fences and shelters or even volunteering their church space to accommodate the refugees. However, some continents are not accommodative to different affiliations. For instance, in Europe (Kéri & Sleiman, 2017), they had challenges accommodating Muslim refugees, but the truth remains churches offer more safe spaces than other institutions.
Sanctuaries in buildings that are religious communities’ property are used to assist the migrants and refugees despite the challenges of political pressure and insufficiency. Most of the religious leaders ready to give out shelter have experienced prior displacement in their lives. Among the unique activities offered in this sanctuary includes education, where the religious people partner with the surrounding schools in the environs. Together with the surrounding communities, their efforts to uplift the refugees go ahead in ensuring resources are well mobilized, and the differences in religious divides and secular divides are minimized.
The faith actors do not hesitate to refer refugees with specific needs to relevant authorities. Their reputation plays an important role in localizing processes and mediation between international humanitarian institutions and grassroots organizations. The efforts present real opportunities to improve migration and refugee response, especially when such collaborations are supported by training programs for humanitarian organizations around partnering with religious people.
Religious people impact society positively by restoring the dignity of the immigrants who lose their lives while migrating by performing burial rites and mourning rituals. They pray for the deceased’s souls, sometimes with little or no knowledge of their religious affiliations. Sometimes the refugees are permitted to perform the rituals themselves together with their relatives in case they exist. Men of faith are the best people to encourage faith communities and the public to reflect on deceased plight while saving their lives from harm and those who lack a decent burial due to lack of identification and therefore remaining invisible.
Healing and Interventions and Religion
During the transition period of forced displacement, refugees face harsh living conditions, fear, and uncertainty regarding the future and mental health problems, patiently waiting for durable solutions. Sometimes their cause of migration might be to access proper treatment for their diseases that they cannot access in their original country. Religion can reach out to health care centers for guidelines on how to support the specific groups of immigrants. They also partner with secular organizations to provide health care services to people on the move and are unable to reach the national public or private healthcare systems.
Faith actors are also better positioned to act as mediators between refugees and health care providers to help bridge the different understandings of health conditions and healing processes. The role of religion is to ensure they provide a conducive environment for the refugees’ healing by offering countless acts of compassion and solidarity. They mobilize efforts from all channels, including government, people of goodwill, religious communities, and political leaders.
In conclusion, the idea of individuals welcoming strangers to a foreign country by natives is central in nearly all affiliations. Religions mostly feel obligated to take the responsibility to shield the refugees from violence and oppression. Many institutions borrow a leaf and this aids in bridging the gap between the immigrants and natives. People should therefore take it from religions to welcome refugees and create safe spaces for them.
References
Bottomore, T. B., & Rubel, M. (1957). Karl Marx: Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy. Economica, 24(93), 95. https://doi.org/10.2307/2551656
Kéri, S., & Sleiman, C. (2017). Religious Conversion to Christianity in Muslim Refugees in Europe. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 39(3), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.1163/15736121-12341344
Lummis, A. T., & Nesbitt, P. D. (2000). Women Clergy Research and the Sociology of Religion. Sociology of Religion, 61(4), 443. https://doi.org/10.2307/3712528
McGrath-Merkle, C. (2009). Generativity and the U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops’ Responses to Priests’ Sexual Abuse of Minors. Journal of Religion and Health, 49(1), 73–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-009-9288-0
Riesebrodt, M. (1999). Charisma Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion. Religion, 29(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1006/reli.1999.0175
Sabaté, J. (2004). Religion, diet, and research. British Journal of Nutrition, 92(2), 199–201. https://doi.org/10.1079/bjn20041229
Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony
Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony
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Eyewitness testimony is a legal term that refers to the account given by an individual of an event they witnessed. Based on this, the eyewitness is perceived to have knowledge of the event as they were physically present and saw everything that transpired. As a result, eyewitness testimony tends to be crucially important to the justice system (Wixted). However, the reliability of eyewitness evidence is questionable as it has led to the convictions of many innocent people, raising the question as to whether eyewitness is reliable and should be admissible in court. DNA evidence has revealed that some convicted individuals were wrongly accused and this has led to over 75% of exonerations of cases that involved mistaken eyewitness identification due to anxiety and stress, memory reconstruction, and visual problems (Wixted, Mickes & Fisher, 2018).
Regardless of whether the accounts provided are true or not, these accounts of the eyewitnesses tend to be significant in criminal trials as they help in reconstructing the facts from past events (Wixted). Since eyewitnesses have a detailed account of the events are they occurred, the justice system tends to trust the witnesses, and this has led to the conviction of many criminals. The jury tends to take into account the evidence brought by eyewitnesses as they strongly believe that ‘seeing is believing. There have been numerous criminal cases across the United States, and in most of these cases, there have always been people who saw what happened (Wixted). For example, in cases of robbery in a bank, witnesses can range from the security guards to the bank attendants, and all these accounts put together can be strong evidence against the defendant. In such cases, it is difficult for the defendant to prove their innocence as there are multiple counts of eyewitnesses who were present as the defendants perpetrated the crime (Wixted, Mickes & Fisher, 2018). In such a case, it is difficult to assume the presence of bias as the evidence of many people has collaborated, making eyewitness evidence irrefutable in such criminal cases.
Despite aiding to serve justice, eyewitness evidence has led to wrongful convictions. Memory reconstruction is one of the major reasons why there are lots of wrongful convictions (Mcleod, 2018). As stated earlier that ‘seeing is believing,’ has made many jurors believe the account of eyewitnesses, however, these accounts do not necessarily match the information provided in court. It is a common misconception that human memory works like a video recording, which allows people to replay events in their minds as they perceived them at the scene of the crime. Science has a different perception of human memory; it asserts that memories are reconstructed, and not replayed, which means that the human memory is not a recording (Wixted, Mickes & Fisher, 2018). As a result, the human mind tends to derive fragments of what they saw. These fragments are pieced together like a puzzle in their minds as they try to recall the information.
Also, the questioning of the eyewitness does not follow the same pattern as the individual witnessed, and this makes it difficult for the person to put the pieces together, leading to alteration of the witness memory, and consequently what they saw. People tend to store information in a manner that tends to make the most sense to them (Mcleod, 2018). Based on this, we make sense of information by trying to fit it into schemas, which are a way of organizing information. In a court of law, individuals are not asked to narrate what happened, but they are asked certain questions to which the prosecutor wants the witness to perceive the incident, and such twisting makes the witness retrieve only information that makes sense to them. By the end of the questioning, the witness is confused and cannot makes sense of what they saw, leading to wrongful convictions.
Anxiety and stress and weapon focus are other issues that can make an eyewitness provide wrongful information. Witnessing a crime can be a stressful experience and can increase the chance of trauma especially if the crime greatly affected the witness (Mcleod, 2018). Anxiety and stress can alter the perceptions of what the individual saw, leading to inaccurate information and identifications. In most crimes, the perpetrators are often armed with weapons to cause damage and defend themselves if the mission went wrong. In such circumstances, many people fear for their lives as they may not know what the perpetrator is thinking, and rather than focusing on who is committing the crime, most people focus on the weapons and picture how they will die. Being on the brink of death makes a person focus on other things such as their loved ones, and may not be able to capture details of the event as everything seems to move fast. Due to anxiety and stress, the witness may not provide reliable information that can lead to the identification of the right perpetrator, they will say what they think they saw which is not true. Evidence shows that some eyewitnesses are of two types, those who focus on the perpetrator and those who focus on the weapon (Mcleod, 2018). For example, a witness who saw the gun version tends to focus on the gun, and therefore, they are less likely to identify the perpetrator in an identity parade compared to those who focused on the perpetrator’s face.
Lineup issues are another major challenge that has led to wrongful convictions based on an eyewitness account. Suspected crime perpetrators are put in lineups both physically and in photographs, and the witnesses are asked to identify the person who they think was the perpetrator. The suspects brought for identification are almost identical and this includes the photographs as well. If the proper procedures are not followed, the law enforcers might give the eyewitness a hint of whom they should identify (Wixted). For example, if the photographs used are of different lighting and sizes, it may cause one picture of the suspect to stand out over others. As a result, the witness may take the standout image as the perpetrator which might not actually be the case. Also, considering the weapon focus and anxiety issues during the crime, some of the eyewitnesses may not have identified the perpetrator as they were busy focusing on other issues. In this case, they might be guessing who might be the perpetrator and might use the facial appearance of the criminals to make their claim (Wixted, Mickes & Fisher, 2018). As a result, the person who is most likely to have bad looks will be assumed to have been the perpetrator, an indication that eyewitness evidence is subject to bias.
Visual characteristics are another major issue in eyewitness evidence. In most cases, witnesses base their identification of a suspect on the defining features (Gustafsson, Lindholm, & Jönsson, 2019). However, criminals are well aware of this, and therefore, they come prepared, with most of them dressing in disguise. For example, a crime may be perpetrated by a woman wearing a mask and dressed and talking like a man, and since their face cannot be seen, it will be difficult to identify whether it was a woman. When it comes to identification, there are higher chances that most eyewitnesses will pick a male suspect who is of the same height and stature as the woman who committed the crime. In such a case, the perpetrator will be free while an innocent person will be sent to jail for a crime they did not commit. In the same context of visual characteristics, racial differences between the suspect and the witness can as well affect the identification of a suspect (Gustafsson, Lindholm, & Jönsson, 2019). Individuals are generally better at identifying members of their own race, and therefore, tend to be highly inaccurate in identifying individuals from other races. Based on this, witnesses might not be sure of whom committed the crime and this might lead to wrongful detention and prosecution.
Finally, distance is another major issue to consider in determining the reliability of eyewitness evidence. As distance increases, blurriness also increases, and this affects the ability of the witness to identify the perpetrators of a crime. The closer the witness is to the crime; the more accurate details will be captured and this will help identify the perpetrator of a crime. For example, at 10 feet, the eyewitness can see a tattoo in the hands, at 200 feet, it would be impossible to see the individual’s eyes, and at 500 feet, it would even be difficult to identify a person since their head can be seen as just one big blur (Stambor, 2006). Based on this, there is equivalence between the size of an individual and blurriness by distance as things get smaller, and by this, finer details are lost. Even though some claim to have seen the perpetrator from a distance during the day, this might not happen during the night as even with artificial lighting, it would be difficult to identify a person who is just 10 feet away.
In conclusion, while eyewitness evidence has been highly valuable in the courts of law and has aided in convicting a large number of criminals, this kind of evidence may not be reliable as it is prone to human errors. The human memory is not like a video recorder and uses memory reconstruction to retrieve information. While the human mind is subject to memory loss, it is also subject to storing information in the form that suits the individual. When it comes to retrieval, only what seems to make sense is retrieved. Most prosecutors ask twisted questions that might be confusing to the witness, resulting in memory alteration due to disorientation. Also, distance, weapon focus and anxiety, and visual characteristics may lead the witness to choose the wrong person. Finally, most of the suspects put on parades or photographs are almost identical and since most of the witnesses might not have captured fine details about the perpetrator, they might be confused and choose the wrong person. Based on this, it is evident that eyewitness accounts are not reliable, but they can be used to reconstruct the events at the scene of the crime. As a result, this evidence can be admissible in court, but can only be used along with other evidence such as DNA to prove the perpetrator guilty.
References
Gustafsson, P. U., Lindholm, T., & Jönsson, F. U. (2019). Predicting Accuracy in Eyewitness Testimonies With Memory Retrieval Effort and Confidence. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 703. Retrieved from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00703/full
Mcleod, S., (2018). Eyewitness testimony. Eyewitness Testimony | Simply Psychology. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/eyewitness-testimony.html
Stambor, Z. (2006). How Reliable Is Eyewitness Testimony?. Monitor on Psychology. American Psychological Association. 37(4), 26-27. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/monitor/apr06/eyewitness
Wixted, J. (2017, June 13). Eyewitness memory is a lot more reliable than you think. Scientific American. Retrieved from: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eyewitness-memory-is-a-lot-more-reliable-than-you-think/
Wixted, J. T., Mickes, L., & Fisher, R. P. (2018). Rethinking the reliability of eyewitness memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(3), 324-335. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1745691617734878