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Apparently, Satan is so offensive, that a woman was forced to either remove her shirt, cover it, or be kicked off her American Airlines flight. How insane is that? I know this is a bit old (it happened in December of 2019) but that doesn’t stop it from being outrageous.
AA has since apologized for the incident, but the fact that it happened at all is appalling. I’m willing to bet that they never took issue with anyone who wore a Christian or Catholic shirt. Their obscure rules about “offensive” clothing seem to be an open invitation for people to receive discriminatory action based on someone’s personal preferences. If they’re going to call a Satanic shirt offensive, they need to specify that all clothing with religious imagery is prohibited.
Another example of discrimination occurred when a student in Alabama was prohibited from wearing a Satanic shirt, while other students were allowed to wear Christian shirts. The issue of religious freedom was again brought up at a school in Iowa, where a student wanted to wear a Satanic shirt to promote equality, even though he wasn’t a practicing Satanist. Both schools considered Satanic imagery to be “disruptive” but took no issue with Christian imagery. This is obvious practice of double standards. One group doesn’t like something, so they ban it. These kinds of policies should apply equally to all.
I’ve been trying to find other instances of people being discriminated against for wearing symbols of a non-Christian religion, but I’ve come up empty. I’m sure it’s happened though. I’m willing to bet it’s happened plenty, it just hasn’t always made the news. It’s completely unfair to call Satanic imagery inappropriate while accepting symbolism related to other religions. I find the image of Jesus on a cross to be extremely disturbing, but no one’s stopping people from displaying it. There’s a lot of bias going on. If one religion’s imagery is considered inappropriate, distracting, or disturbing, then that should apply to every religion.
Discrimination against non-Christian faiths has been going on for a long time, and it needs to stop. There’s no legitimate reason for it. We need to make sure policies at schools and businesses change so that the rules apply to everyone. We need to put an end to vague policies that can be used to discriminate. Religious freedom means freedom for everyone, not just a single group. If it’s good for one, it’s good for all.
In a related note, I was seriously disturbed at some of the comments on an article about the American Airlines incident. One user said “Mental issues should be treated as such not labelled as freedom.” implying that Satanism is a mental disorder. Other comments included: “Joining a satanist group denotes an immoral childhood.” – “maybe put them all on the same flight and call it a flight to hell. Seems they should be allowed to visit their chosen father” – “Would sit next to someone who has just purposefully shit in his pants and wants to keep them on? There is freedom and common sense. The latter must prevail.”
None of those comments are unusual when non-Christian people attempt to stand up for their rights, especially Satanists. If you’re not Christian, they think you’re crazy, evil, filthy or somehow mentally dysfunctional. It’s sad that they’re so willing to sling hate at others, but they can’t stand being treated the same way. They preach love and display hate. It has to change. There’s nothing wrong with believing in something that others don’t, and everyone deserves equal rights.
If you know of other cases where someone’s been discriminated against for wearing non-Christian clothing or jewelry, please leave a link in the comments. We need to draw attention to the inequality and help to change the bigotry that’s so prevalent in our society.
