Today is Good Friday, an extremely important day in the Christian, specifically Roman Catholic, calendar. As a child growing up in a solely Christian community in Southern Illinois, I always had the day off school. In some year, my “mini break” included Holy/Maundy Thursday and Easter Monday as well. My mother always took the Friday off work to be home with us. And the most I remember of religious observances on the day was not eating meat.
This morning I checked my Facebook account before heading to work and found that several of my teacher friends in neighboring districts were upset because they had to work today. Once even commented that she felt persecuted for being a Protestant and could never remember having to work on Good Friday. I wanted to argue with her and tell her that I know that district had school in 2002 and 2003, but figured I was wasting my breath. The comments caused me to do something thinking, research and discussion on the topic though.
I should preface all this by saying I’m not an overtly religious person. I believe in a higher power and I’m spiritual, but I find organized religion somewhat of a farce. The reason for these feelings is that I’ve found so many “religious” folks to be total hypocrits. Case in point was my former father-in-law, the minister and police officer, who told me that if you put phone books under a suspects clothing and then beat them with your baton it wouldn’t leave visible bruises. Preach it, Reverend H!
Enough digression…Good Friday is not a federal holiday in the United States. Some states and municipalities choose to recognize it, but the United States as a whole does not. I can agree with this based on the idea of the separation of church and state. As I discussed this with my brother, the religious right ultra conservative this morning, he disagreed with me. His take is that the United States was founded on Christian principles. He felt people who believe in other religions should be allowed to use personal or vacation time, but now given a day off from work. Now, I do not disagree that our founding fathers were all Christians. However, if we’re not founded on the concept of separation of these two entities, why do we have two clauses written in our Constitution? The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause both lead me to the belief that no one should be forced into any religious belief in which they do not believe. Thomas Jefferson authored the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom that stated
... no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
Call me crazy, I’ve been called worse, but to me that states that no one should be forced to celebrate any religious holiday to which they do not subscribe. Thus I would extrapolate from that if the federal or state government shut down businesses, schools, offices, aren’t they forcing the recognition of the day.
I don’t have any problem with people taking Good Friday as a vacation or personal day. I would even encourage it, if they were doing the traditional observation of attending a worship service, fasting, or avoiding any work all together. But even my right wing sibling had already been shopping this morning to buy plants and mulch to work in his yard. If we’re taking Good Friday as a holiday, what about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the first and last days of Passover. If we’re all about equality, shouldn’t our Jewish citizens enjoy their holidays as well without being required to use a vacation or personal day?
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