The Michaela Way and Living in Community

In an American context, a school like the Michaela School, which receives public funds, would be required to make “reasonable accommodations” for religious observance. This might include allowing head coverings, providing a space for prayer, or excusing absences for religious holidays. It is difficult to predict how the Michaela School’s lawsuit would play out in the United States because so many variables exist in the laws from one state to another. And not being an expert in English law, I can’t predict the outcome of this suit. But the controversy does raise a couple of important questions that the British and the rest of the West may have ignored for far too long. First, what is religious freedom for? In a world fixated on individual rights, we tend to think of rights more like privileges that we assert over and against others. Many rarely consider the fact that our rights are exercised within a larger community to which we have obligations and responsibilities. Every right produces a corresponding duty imposed on others, which in some way shapes the actions of others in the community.