Religion in Culture?

There have been a few stories that have cropped up in the news recently where religion has permeated the culture and those who follow the religion have made requests for companies and institutions to alter their policies to suit their belief system.

There have been two instances of note, both regarding female Muslims. The more widely reported situation is regarding the workout facility on Harvard's campus that is providing women-only gym times. They've honored a request from a Muslim student group so that the Muslim women can wear clothing that is more appropriate for working out and not feel uncomfortable due to the apparent immodesty of wearing workout clothes around men.

The second, and lesser known, complaint comes out of Britain. Female Muslim doctors are objecting to a more rigorous hand-washing standard. The new requirement is that they wash their hands and arms up to their elbows to prevent the spread of dangerous bacteria. Their view is that this is forcing them to be immodest because they should not be displaying their arms above their wrists. Some women at Birmingham University have said they would change careers rather than comply.

I have two different types of responses to these situations: Specific and broad.

Specific
In regards to the women-only gym time at Harvard, my initial response is to disagree. Even though it's only one gym that has instituted these hours, and even though the times are when the gym is least used, I still don't agree with the decision. It's sexist and there are other solutions. If the women as so concerned with modesty then buy a New Jersey jogging suit and work out with your head covering. Don't like working out with men? Join Curves. If a Christian group was uncomfortable working out with homosexuals, would the gym bend to their wishes? What if a "fat-guy" group wanted a non-women/non-athletic male workout time, would it be granted? What if a Muslim group requested a non-Jewish workout time, where does it end? Truthfully, this isn't really about religious freedom. If your religion requires certain actions that would forbid certain activities, don't try to get the activities changed so you can participate in them. If I'm a devote Catholic and I don't believe in eating meat on Friday, I'm not going to ask them to move the hot dog eating contest to Saturday and I'm not going to ask them to change it to a carrot eating contest. It's not other's responsibility to cater to my religious beliefs.

The issue in Britain is even worse. Ok, so the guys can workout in another gym or at another time, but these doctors are potentially putting their patients at risk because they don't want to expose their arms. Maybe they should have some women-only arm washing times. However, I fully respect those who have said that they would change professions rather than comply with the regulation. That is the correct course of action. If my work forced me to work Sunday morning, I'd find different work.

Broad
Now, having said all of that, here's the flip side: As a Christian, don't I make similar requests on my culture? Do I really believe that "It's not other's responsibility to cater to my religious beliefs." I vote Pro-Life, I support films that encourage family values and redemption, I patron establishments that are family friendly. Perhaps the difference is that my actions are all within the bounds of our current culture. I'm not asking culture to change. Rather, I'm changing myself to be counter-cultural (Something we're often encouraging our youth to do. It's no coincidence that our youth group is called "NonCon4mers"). Is it not more radical to for go some of life's "luxuries" because they conflict with your religion than to attempt to force the "luxuries" to cater to your religious convictions? Didn't Chariots of Fire teach us anything?

Well, there's my opinion, what's yours?