The choice of Senator Joseph Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, as Vice President Al Gore’s running mate in the United States presidential campaign represents a chance to “highlight the critical lack of legal protection for Sabbath-keepers in the workplace,” says Seventh-day Adventist attorney Mitchell Tyner.
“Lieberman’s Sabbath beliefs have drawn a huge amount of media interest,” says Tyner, an associate in the legal department of the Adventist Church’s international headquarters. “But what these reports fail to mention is that other, less prominent Americans have no effective legal protection when faced with the choice between their employment or their Sabbath beliefs.”
Every day in the United States, says Tyner, two or three Adventists will lose their job or be refused employment because they choose to follow the dictates of conscience rather than work on Saturday.
Tyner says that there is a certain irony that while public attention is focused on Lieberman’s Sabbath stand, a bill, co-sponsored by Lieberman and intended to increase workplace accommodation of Sabbath-keepers, is “quietly languishing in Congress.”
The Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) was introduced into the Senate in September 1999, and in the House of Representatives in April 2000. If passed, the law would ensure that employers have a meaningful obligation to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of their employees, unless to do so would cause the employer “undue hardship.” “This is an essential piece of legislation,” says Tyner. “It is balanced, acknowledging the needs of both employers and employees, and it has the support of a broad array of religious and civil rights groups.”
“The historic and symbolic significance of having a Jewish American on a presidential ticket is undeniable,” adds Tyner. “But unless WRFA is passed, giving everyday, working Americans the same opportunity as Lieberman to have his or her religious beliefs accommodated on the job, then what really has been won?”
Richard Foltin, legislative director for the American Jewish Committee and chair of a D.C. coalition that spearheaded the WRFA drafting and lobbying efforts, told ANN that time is running out for WRFA to be passed before the 106th Congress adjourns in October this year.
“While we’re hopeful that at least a hearing on the bill will be scheduled, we know that Congress has a crowded legislative agenda between now and adjournment.” If the bill fails to pass before the end of the Session, says Foltin, it will have to be reintroduced at the beginning of the new Congressional Session early in 2001.
Lieberman is “lucky” according to Alan Reinach, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the Adventist Church in California. “He has a ‘boss’ who knew he wanted Sabbath off, and agreed to ‘hire’ him anyway,” says Reinach. “Thousands of Americans are not so lucky. When they tell a prospective employer they can’t work on the Sabbath, they don’t get hired. Thousands more lose their jobs each year when their schedules are changed to require work in conflict with their faith.”
The Adventist Church, a Protestant Christian organization formed in 1863, teaches the observance of Saturday as a “day of rest.” Like Orthodox Jews, Adventists mark this 24-hour period from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. There are more than 11 million Adventists in 205 countries around the world. Of these, almost one million live in North America.