Thr employee could be tasked with a stock position and kept off the register, birth control could be sold through the pharmacy or other dedicated register that the employee is never tasked with manning, etc.

This is where the employee failed as well by not informing the employer of faith requirements and part of why they deserve to be fired. Reasonable accomodations are expected to be made for faith practices and handicaps. Reasonable.

If it’s a small town store, there may only be need for one register. If you’re unwilling to sell product from it, you need to get another job. The business isn’t required to fail in order to protect weird religious beliefs.

Good point about getting the manager, but I was thinking about a call button sort of thing. That’s discreet. There are lots of items that require manager ring up, adding condoms to that list isn’t that big a deal.

Of course all of this is theoretical anyway because there is no Christian faith practice that prohibits the sale of birth control. There are a few where using it for oneself is a violation of the faith. Catholicism being the most obvious example, the Amish being another.

Catholics, however, are not prohibited from tracking cycles or pulling out so, they do in fact practice birth control, they just don’t regard it as such.

Can one person claim religious exemption when said act is not part of the faith tradition? Would we accept refusal to sell pork from a Muslim as a religious exemption? My bet is that the same Christians suddenly howling about condoms would scream at those the Muslims for stepping beyond their actual faith as a way of oppressing others and point out that there is no prohibition on selling pork in the Quran, just from consuming it or from handling it.

There’s little doubt that in reality, this was performative moralizing.