The NAACP is taking a page from the ACLU playbook.

The NAACP is taking a page from the ACLU playbook.

The NAACP has filed a complaint against a Spring Valley dentist, who happens to be Jewish, because he closes on Saturdays – the Jewish Sabbath. The NAACP is actually claiming religious discrimination.

From The Journal News:

SPRING VALLEY — The village chapter of the NAACP has filed a complaint accusing the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic of religious discrimination for closing on Saturdays.

The complaint, filed Sept. 6 with the state’s Division of Human Rights, alleges that the clinic’s practice of remaining closed Saturdays in observance of operators’ Jewish Sabbath unlawfully imposes their religious beliefs on others.

So what doses attacking a Dental Clinic have to do with the “Advancement of Colored People?” The article goes on the mention some federal funding that the clinic received, and previous allegations that the clinic staff was improperly treating non-
English speaking, undocumented, or uninsured patients. But neither is a religious issue.

The main thing that puzzles me is the religious spin on all of this. If the core issue is that the clinic is not properly treating its patients, say that. If the core issue is that the clinic is not properly using federal funding, say that. Why attack the
religion of the owner/operator, which that is not the issue at hand. What if the operator said he was closed Sunday due his gold league – then would the NAACP have an issue?

Also, this is a major departure of the NAACP, and one that members should be concerned about. If the NAACP is going to turn into a broad activist group, rather than a focused and specific group, then the members need to be aware of this.

The goal, as stated by the NAACP is to have the clinic open on Saturday, but why call being closed Saturday “religious discrimination”. Should the clinic be closed on Sunday as well to appease the Christians; and perhaps closed on Friday to appease the Muslims? Or, is the NAACP, claiming negative discrimination – discrimination by inaction rather
than action?

I am profoundly uncomfortable with the direction this could develop. Can we say that businesses closed on Sunday are then practicing religious discrimination?

I hope whatever court or legislator gets this case shuts it down as the nonsense it is.