Walgreens employee refuses to sell condoms to married woman citing "my faith" / LGBTQ Nation
By: Daniel Villarreal
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A woman named Jessica Pentz has shared her story of an employee of a Walgreens drugstore refusing to sell her a box of condoms. The employee told her that selling condoms was against his religious beliefs.
In response, a Walgreens spokesperson said that its employees are allowed to "step away from completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection." The company's policy has troubling implications considering that the U.S. Supreme Court may soon reconsider its decision guaranteeing people's rights to contraception.
While vacationing in Wisconsin with her husband, Pentz realized she left her oral contraceptives at home, she told the Star Tribune. So she visited a Walgreens store in the city of Hayward to purchase condoms.
When she arrived at the checkout register, a clerk named John told her, "I can't sell those to you." When she asked for clarification, the clerk allegedly replied, "We can sell that to you. But I will not, because of my faith."
Pentz said, "That's none of your business."
The clerk responded, "Well, I'm sorry, this is what my faith demands."
"You're not sorry," Pentz replied.
She said that during their interaction, a line of customers began forming behind her. She then realized she was the only woman in the store. She began wondering if the clerk would've refused to sell her the condoms if she were a man.
The clerk called over a manager who signed the clerk out of the register, and the clerk reportedly left the area with a smirk. The manager then proceeded to sell Pentz the condoms.
When Pentz left the store, another customer named Alec Jeffery followed her into the parking lot. He had overheard her conversation with the clerk, had seen the clerk's smirk, and told Pentz, "It was complete bulls**t, and you handled that way better than I would have."
Pentz was shocked that a store clerk would refuse to sell her a product carried in their own store. She also felt bad for any younger or less confident person who might experience similar pushback from an unwilling sales clerk.
When asked about the incident, a Walgreens spokesperson said, "Our company policy allows team members to step away from completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection and refer the transaction to a fellow team member or manager who will complete the customer's request."
The policy is troubling considering that Walgreens, the second-largest pharmacy chain in the U.S., may serve as the only source for contraceptives in some communities.
The store's policy is even more alarming considering that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently stated wish to overturn previous Supreme Court decisions, including Griswold v. Connecticut, the ruling that recognized the right to access to contraceptives.
Even if the Supreme Court doesn't overturn that ruling, it could still issue a "religious freedom" ruling that would empower employees of any business to refuse to sell just about any item to an LGBTQ customer or any other customer under the guise of "religious beliefs," even if a state bans discrimination in public accommodations.
The previous presidential administration signaled its support to provide legal protections for businesses that refuse to serve customers under "sincerely held religious beliefs." A future Republican administration could try to reinstate similar rules, threatening the ability of adults to make decisions concerning their own sexual health.
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Fuck these assholes. They can take their religious beliefs and shove them up their ass.
If they took your advice "Fuck these assholes" there would be not a need for the condoms in the first place.
Who knew religious belief was a code word for being a dick.
Actually, i did, cause between dictating what is right from wrong for all, they've shown they know not, what is right for all. How many have died due to religion, but, thank 'God", we've now forced them to accept 'ours', but which is the TRUE religion, and which is the clay stool pigeon, told to have been towed away forbeing pigeon toed, or so i'm told, but it's ok, this pigeon isn't gay, in that extra happy way, as he keeps all of his eggs in one big basket of deplorables, while praying a Nor' Easter beheaded their way till Passover, but Ashley Wednesday had a cigar put out on their forehead, to hide the mark of the beast, Trump didn't actually try and change direction of this comment, because, again, i did.
Anybody who's had their dinner interrupted by the doorbell and the idiots with bibles in their hands ringing it.
That is when you answer the door naked...
the thumper that got arrested for arguing with a cop in my condo parking lot over trespassing, later tried to get 3 underage girls into my condo to talk about jesus. I saw his feet on the stairs when I stepped up onto the common entry to get the phone number for security to call the cops. after that episode, I declared war on every thumper that knocked on any door in the complex. due to the statute of limitations, I can't go into any further details on what may have happened to him after that, but his hotel conference room church seems to have moved.
funny, they all want to meet jesus, but none of them ever want to meet him right now...
The point is to stop them from coming back, not increase the frequency.....
I've met a lot of clergy that weren't in your face types, but thumpers need to be dealt with very aggressively.
We will soon see if Florida truly believes in the freedom for people to practice their religion.
Synagogue Sues Florida, Saying Abortion Restrictions Violate Religious Freedoms
Here! Here!
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Several colliding thoughts: Muslims own liquor/convenient stores and smoke shops. Walgreens sells cigarettes and alcohol where does his/her morals stand on ringing those items up? Will be a busy time for managers and many awkward moments in a shift if you keep trying to determine a right to buy for legal goods and services!
Who knew his God would smite him just because a woman bought condoms....
Condoms are a medical 'device.' They are not an unholy thing!
When are these dipshits going to realize their "religious freedom" ends where the freedoms of somebody else starts?
... right after several of their leaders get splattered.
She should get a job where things she does not like are not sold.
People need to adapt their religious beliefs to the rest of the world not demand everybody else change to accommodate them.
But then she couldn't cry about her rights are being violated.
Finding 'pure and uncorrupted" work may be impossible. As Apostle Paul stated, 'To not associate with the "the world" one would have to depart it.' - Paraphrase. If s/he is considering how to possess his or her 'vessel' in holiness, that is done though personal professing/confessing. That is, self-discipline.
Apostle Paul, as he travels around the Middle East and Roman territories, planting his ideas and churches, became immersed in varying attitudes, cultures, and the like, but his mission did not change during the process of intermingling, because he knew whom he was apart from the environments encompassing and encroaching upon him.
according to the article, the clerk in question was a male.
you are correct
Actually he should.
Bazinga!
LOL , well can you imagine his reaction if the response was ," well your moms going to be disapointed she has to ride bareback , last time she did she ended up with you , and see how you turned out ...."
Lol
What a dumbass religious nut case.
at the rate they're going, we'll be shooting at them in less than 3 years...
Incidentally, this is comparative to a Muslim getting a job at a supermarket meat counter and refusing to sell the pork chops and other portions to paying customers. And more: What happens when the manager or other workers are indisposed or off on a run during the shift?
That’s bullshit. There’s nothing in scripture that prohibits contraception. I’d be willing to have a conversation about the clerk’s beliefs and all that if I thought they were legit, but I know they’re not. The Catholic Church has, for most of its existence, not given two shits about contraception. In the 1930s, Pope Pius XI declared that it was evil, and it has persisted to this day. But there is no genuine support for this in scripture.
Jesus did not traipse about the countryside admonishing people to avoid contraception.
There is this erroneous notion that the Bible says you’re not supposed to enjoy sex - that even in marriage, it’s only for procreation. So here’s some sexy scripture from Solomon’s Song of Songs (Chapter 7):
And well you are to point this out, because it is not long from now that an old myth of male seed not issuing forth unless it is into a womb lying prone in the "missionary" position rebounds! Fundamentalists nonsense.
Does it mention his religion? Probably some offshoot baptist bullshit.
Can a Christian Walgreen's employee refuse to sell a Jewish customer a Hanukkah card because it violates their religious beliefs? Or Hanukkah candles for their menorah?
Likewise, can a Hindu Walgreen's employee, for example, refuse to sell Christmas tree ornaments?
Walgreen's policy is definitely questionable.
You are right to warn of the slippery slope of persons passing judgements that will sooner than later violate civil rights on one individual or another under a banner of religious liberty and expression.
I think we can be certain that if the Walgreen's employee mentioned in the article was the one being denied service, maybe a clerk refused to sell him tinsel for his Christmas tree, he would go ballistic and probably grab his AR -15.
Oh my! That would be serious!
Wonder how long Walgreen's will be willing to follow a policy of signing out a clerk and signing in another in order to complete a transaction because the first clerk has a religious objection ? Not a sound business practice at all. I see lines of impatient customers getting angrier by the minute.
It's the complete opposite of a sound business practice.
That may be Walgreens plan: To let these self-righteous fundamentalist bigots wash themselves in-through-out of their company career structure. Surely the 'plan,' if that is what Walgreens is intending, won't work.Why? Because fundamentalists are nothing if not persistent in striving to 'own' the hearts and minds of people who want nothing to do with them, per se.