Conscientious objectors in the workplace…
Swimming against the tide.
In retrospect, I realize I’ve always been something of a conscientious objector in the workplace. I had real problems with being required to show up for work every day, and I very often disagreed with employment policies and management decisions concerning compensation issues, personal time off, and so on.
But seriously, my jocular objections are not the same thing as a pharmacist refusing to dispense birth control, or a nurse refusing to assist in an abortion, or a young man or woman refusing to participate in studies or research which goes against Catholic teaching.
Most of us usually think of a conscientious objector as a person who refuses to go to war. Such people rarely win the respect of authorities or fellow citizens. Today conscientious objectors are frequently found emerging in the workplace, and I doubt they are lauded as heroes like a Norma Rae, Karen Silkwood, or Erin Brokovitch. Simply because their causes are so politically incorrect.
“Benedict XVI has recently recalled that pharmacists have the duty of engaging in conscientious objection.”- Zenit
For instance, how dare a pharmacist refuse to dispense a morning-after pill, or basic birth control? And it is not the sales clerk’s business to refuse to sell a condom or a pornographic video. He is there to work for the company, not dictate morality. Conscientious objectors like these may share a certain similarity with their movie heroine counterparts, except for the fact their conscientious objection is usually an affront to the popular mindset. Many in our culture see no problem with such things as contraception, abortion, along with the other “Catholic guilt trips” the “imperial power structure of the Church imposes“. (These are secularist terms, not mine.)
See how that works? Conscientious objectors will receive no respect from a society without a conscience. Which may be why priests, bishops, and the Pope have been talking about a “green martyrdom“ as well as “concientious objectors” more frequently and with increasing urgency these days.
Something to think about.
Source: Zenit: “More Conscientious Objection Encouragd“
