Is Veganism A Religion?

    I know plenty of anti-animal rights folks who think that things like animal rights or ethical veganism are just shy of a religious cult, but I was a bit surprised to see a vegan arguing in court that this dietary preferences constituted a religious belief system. But that’s just what Jerold Friedman argued, unsuccessfully, in a lawsuit against his former employer, Kaiser Permanente.

    Kaiser Permanente offered a Friedman a full-time job and then retracted that offer after he refused to take a mumps vaccination; the mumps vaccination includes material derived from chicken embryos. According to Friedman, “Egg-laying hens suffer greatly in chicken factory farms, and the use of unborn chickens to culture the mumps vaccine causes further unnecessary death.” Apparently the extra unnecessary deaths of human beings that would result without the mumps vaccination don’t concern Friedman.

    Friedman has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit arguing that since veganism is a religion, his firing constitutes religious persecution under U.S. civil rights laws.

    Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Sohigian flatly rejected this claim and summarily dismissed nine of the eleven cause of action against Kaiser Permanente outlined in Friedman’s lawsuit. (Friedman also accuses the company of lying to him by telling him that a TB test he took didn’t contain animal products, when in fact it is cultured in cow serum).

    Friedman’s lawyer is planning an appeal, saying, “We are confident that the Court of Appeals will hold Ethical Veganism as a religion or the functional equivalent of a religion. Not only Ethical Vegans, but all religious minorities would benefit from such a ruling,” said Friedman’s lawyer, Scott Myer.

    Despite Myer’s optimism it’s extremely unlikely that a court is going to hold veganism as a religious movement. Moreover, even if that happened it’s hard to see how it would help Friedman as laws against discrimination in the workplace don’t apply where the act of discrimination is a necessary part of the job, and clearly having a mumps vaccination and tuberculosis tests are extremely important for people working in health care.

Source:

Judge tosses much of ‘vegan’ suit; former Kaiser worker to appeal. Press release, July 17, 2000.