Firing excellent math teachers because they’re Quaker
By Christopher MooreThe San Fransisco Chronicle reports that a Quaker math teacher was fired for refusing to sign an oath of allegiance. This is not necessarily physics news, but having gone to Guilford College and having a background in the Society of Friends, this is an interesting story to me.
Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker and graduate student who began teaching remedial math to undergrads Jan. 7, lost her $700-a-month part-time job after refusing to sign an 87-word Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution that the state requires of elected officials and public employees.
You see, Ms. Kearney-Brown did the following each time the oath was presented to her:
Each time, when asked to “swear (or affirm)” that she would “support and defend” the U.S. and state Constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Kearney-Brown inserted revisions: She wrote “nonviolently” in front of the word “support,” crossed out “swear,” and circled “affirm.” All were to conform with her Quaker beliefs, she said.
She refused to sign the statement unaltered, and she was fired.
You see, Quakers have this little hang-up on non-violence. It’s nothing big, really, it’s just sort of one of the foundations of the religion. The oath as written is like asking a Hindu to swear to defend the constitution from all enemies, including cows. Also, the statement is vague. Very vague. What constitutes an enemy of the constitution? I claim that a large majority of our Representatives in Congress are “enemies” to the constitution. Who defines “enemies”? And what constitutes “defend”.
Ms. Kearney-Brown makes the following point:
All they care about is my name on an unaltered loyalty oath. They don’t care if I meant it, and it didn’t seem connected to the spirit of the oath. Nothing else mattered. My teaching didn’t matter. Nothing.
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Zounds, there firing her because she would not agree to a mindless oath is similar to some entity firing a Christian because he or she would not swear on the Koran. Isn’t the college an equal opportunity employer? If it is, isn’t it illegal for her to be fired because she refused to affirm an oath that was not inline with her religion?
Comment by Joseph — Tuesday -- March 25th, 2008 @ 8:32 am