The elements are here to produce as good a Zion as was ever made in all the eternities of the Gods. Here are the elements to produce grain which is good for the food of man, as also the fruit of the vine, and that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground.
– Brigham Young, 2/23/1862
Guest
September 1, 2015 @ 8:32 am
How do you handle discrimination? I’ve been thinking about setting up cooperatives as in the Brigham City model, but one challenge we have that they did not is the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Presumably, if a cooperative was set up for the purpose of building Zion, one would prefer to have these cooperatives owned and staffed by righteous Latter-day Saints. It would therefore be desirably to refuse employment to gentiles. The risk is that the whole operation could come tumbling down if, say, a gentile were to be refused employment, and sue citing discrimination, and win the lawsuit.
Based on my reading of the Civil Rights Act, there are a few exemptions which would allow a cooperative to only hire righteous Latter-day Saints:
Title VII, section 701 (b)
Employers with fewer than 15 employees are not considered employers, and are therefore exempt.
Title VII, section 701 (c)
501(c) employees with fewer than 25 employees are not considered employers, and are therefore exempt.
Title VII, section 703, (e)
Discrimination on the basis of religion is legal in the case that “…religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise…”
I suppose that in order to qualify the religious preference as a bona fide occupational qualification, the cooperative’s charter would need to clearly state its purpose as providing employment and economic independence to the Mormon people in a community, etc.
Jesse
September 1, 2015 @ 10:19 am
Thanks for looking into that! Important issue.
Then again, there are plenty of active LDS that would make a mess of a cooperative as well.
Our charter would also need to express the purpose of providing employment to those willing to uphold and strengthen the group and not cause contention for sport.