So what documentation is someone required to provide to demonstrate that something violates their religious beliefs? That they only need to say so?
The IRS has certain criteria to be deemed a church for tax purposes. I don’t know what they are off the top of my head but perhaps someone feels like doing a search.
There is generally a burden on the person claiming exemption to show that in fact they have the faith beliefs they claim, that their beliefs go against X. So someone who claimed to be a devout menonite (whose beliefs proscribe serving in the military) who is living in NYC, goes out drinking and doesn’t go to church and/or pray or otherwise show they practice the faith, and claims CO status if we had the draft, would lose. More importantly, there generally are recognized faiths involved, I suspect someone claiming adherence to the Flying Spaghetti monster would have trouble, there needs to be some sort of proof it is really a faith tradition (which of course can be dicey, because then you could argue the government is deciding what a valid faith is, which could be a violation of the first amendment. Usually what is involved in this recognition is a sign that the person actually follows it, believes it, and it isn’t just something they made up)>
IIRC, CO status requires a much higher showing than other kinds of religious accommodation. You have to show that your religion objects to ALL war, not just THIS war. For most RFRA statutes, just showing a conflict between an action and a belief is enough, and the fact that you violate other rules of your stated faith is not relevant.
Remember that the accommodations are only reasonable, so somebody can’t impose some wild inconvenience on others based on a nutty religious belief. As a result, it is usually not important to delve too much into the sincerity of a person’s belief. If a person says he follows Islam, and therefore wants a break to pray at certain times, it’s not important to delve into his belief–although I think he has to pray, and not go outside to smoke.
If a guy wants to wear his Jedi robes to the workplace, the main question will be how disruptive the accommodation is, not whether his faith is real or not.
It is different, of course, if he wants tax-free status for his “church.”
Anybody fascinated by this topic may find this interesting: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/religion.html
Which is in part because CO status isn’t a religious accommodation—atheists (and adherents of religions that aren’t one of the peace churches) can get CO status if they can demonstrate that objection to all war is and long has been a deeply held personal belief. That’s a high hurdle, though—it requires lots of documentation beyond just saying so (but that goes for adherents of the peace churches, too).
@GnocchiB there is nothing wrong with vinegar and muslims. as a muslim, i love balsamic vinegar that person was being annoying tbh