Viewpoint Variations
A Spiritual Fitness Test: The Limits of the US Military’s Use of Spirituality as a Framework for Wellness
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Jessica Sitek
This paper examines the category of spirituality, and the ongoing challenges related to defining and measuring spirituality in concrete and meaningful ways. This is done by considering the military’s use of spirituality as a measure for comprehensive soldier fitness beginning in 2009. The Department of Defense's (DOA) organization-wide Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program was touted as a “unique approach to health,” one that included spirituality as a fitness (health/wellness) measure. Following internal backlash and broader cultural criticism from organizations concerned with protecting First Amendment rights, the DOA modified the program. Yet, whether the military addressed concerns regarding first amendment/religious freedom or refined the measure remains unclear. The military’s attempt to measure spirituality using a Spiritual Fitness Test (SFT, later Spiritual Fitness Inventory) is significant. Moreover, as I argue, it needs to be contextualized within the broader context of how we survey spirituality. As I argue, the shortfalls of the military’s SFT/SFI are part of a larger challenge around how we measure and survey spirituality. Within the unique context of the US military, the SFT/SFI raises issues around first amendment jurisprudence (how to interpret the constitutional protections for and from religion), and more importantly it complicates the category of "spirituality" as a more capacious and universal category than religion to account for human experience and individual identity.
The Legal and Ethical Unjustifiability of the Religious Exception in South Africa’s Definition of Hate Speech
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Kevin Behrens
In May 2024, South Africa’s Parliament gazetted the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act. The Act creates two new criminal offences: hate crime and hate speech. In this paper I am only concerned with the crime of hate speech. This offence is defined as follows: Any person who “intentionally publishes, propagates or advocates anything or communicates to one or more persons in a manner that [demonstrates] a clear intention to—(i) be harmful or to incite harm; or (ii) promote or propagate hatred” based on one or more of fifteen grounds— including birth; disability; gender or gender identity; ethnic or social origin; and sexual orientation—would be guilty of the offence of hate speech. Clearly the Act intends to protect persons who are particularly vulnerable to experiencing the harms of hate speech. As is typical with hate speech laws, some exceptions are granted for speech emanating from the arts, academia and the media. Atypically, this law also grants conditional exemption for religious speech. I argue that the exception for religious speech is legally flawed, irrational, unconstitutional and unethical. While South Africa is a secular state that guarantees religious freedom, I claim that legislators were wrong to grant religious groups special doxastic entitlements denied to those whose conscience, thought, belief and opinion are not based in religion. This is unjustified, arbitrary, prioritisation of religious belief over any other. It is clearly unfair discrimination on the grounds of belief, thought and opinion, and cannot be rational or constitutional.
Is Pilgrimage an Essential Service?: The Conflict over Congregational Worship and Health Governance
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Maria Angelica Alvarez Orozco,
Silvia Aulet
After COVID19 many questions related to life-style and health have raised. One of the meanings of pilgrimage can be associated with the search of balance and harmony between soul and body. The research of spirituality can also be described as the search for a harmonious or unity relationship with oneself, others (including other people, animals, earth, nature) and/or God or the transcendent. Today it is widely accepted that the quest for spirituality is closely related to the research of well-being, that also includes self-improvement and overcoming challenges, especially related to physical activities like walking. This study examines whether pilgrimage can be considered as an essential activity needed to reach a meaningful and healthy life. According to WHO, there are 10 Essential Public Heath Operations (EPHO), involving different dimensions of health, such as physical, mental, social well-being and spiritual. This research looks at the governance of pilgrimage trails as an essential activity given the WHO’s recommendations. Through a series of in-depth interviews with four representatives of pilgrimage sites in Europe, we suggest that pilgrimages, and their associated trails, be understood as essential services and their governance reflect this importance not only for destinations but also for individuals.
