Ever since proclaimed Pastafarian Nico Alms obtained his official Austrian driver’s license stamped with a photo of him wearing a pasta strainer (for declared religious reasons), the question of what constitutes religious freedom has been abuzz. At Religion Dispatches, Austin Dacey contributes to the conversation:
The affair raises questions that go beyond the jokey “church”—questions with which every society must grapple: What is religious freedom? Does it entitle some people to special protection under the law, and if so, which people? We can persist in drawing increasingly arbitrary lines between Rastafarian and Pastafarian, between the Church of Jesus Christ, Scientist and the Church of Scientology, or we can join the few pioneering scholars of religion and the law who have found another way. The solution is that no one is entitled to religious freedom because there is no such thing as religious freedom.
Read Dacey’s essay to learn more about the ambiguity surrounding religious freedom and a subsequent proposal for managing religious discrimination.