When Nesta Hughes worked in a warehouse, she often stocked shelves and climbed ladders. It wasn’t a job a person would usually do in a skirt, but Hughes is Pentecostal, a religion that teaches that women are not to wear pants.

“I was wearing a jean skirt, and I found that some men volunteered to crawl under the ladders for me,” says Hughes of Auburn, who promptly started to wear a type of short legging under her skirts.

A number of religious traditions exist that might seem to go against what is common in today’s society, be it rules of modesty, fasting or taking an entire day or season off work.

It’s a result of the mixture of societies present in the United States, says Earl Kumfer, chair of the philosophy and theology department at the University of Saint Francis.

And of how often – or rarely – those societies interact.

“We live in a world where we don’t have neighborhoods to speak of anymore,” he says. “People don’t sit on their front porches and chitchat with their neighbors as the sun is setting.”

These religious traditions can be simply a way of life, as natural as breathing, for those who practice them, and some employers are assuring these issues are met before they ever arise.

The human resources director for Lutheran Hospital, the Orthopedic Hospital and RediMed, Maria Kurtz says The Joint Commission, the accreditation and certification board for health care in the United States, has rules that address such issues before they arise, helping employers know the best protocol for dealing with issues.

For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusions in accordance with certain Scriptures, such as in Leviticus 17:13-14: “As for any man … who in hunting catches a wild beast or a fowl that may be eaten, he must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust. For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the soul in it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel: ‘You must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it will be cut off.’ ”

As such, The Joint Commission has a policy to deal with employees who would not be permitted to provide a blood transfusion, Kurtz says.

“We have a commitment to our patients and our patient care, and that’s essential,” says Kurtz, who says in 10 years of work in human resources she has never received such a request. “And if something were to compromise that, we wouldn’t necessarily be able to agree to it, but we want to respect that person’s religious beliefs and have a dialogue and see what we can do.”

Society respectful

In Hughes’ experience in the workforce – and in her three Pentecostal daughters’ experiences – employers are respectful of their beliefs, and there has never been an issue in their jobs. However, she says, it can be more difficult to keep their traditions because of how much society has changed. Hughes, 73, remembers when her grandmother and aunts always wore dresses; when she was a girl, it was not unusual for women to dress solely in skirts. That started to change when women entered the workplace.

In addition to wearing skirts, she does not wear makeup or cut her hair – all rules she follows because they are put forth in the Bible.

“We believe that we can’t really improve on what the Lord made us to look like,” says Hughes, who is married to the pastor at Auburn United Pentecostal Church.

Strength in faith

Though following these rules may seem difficult, they will often leave the believer feeling good, says Kumfer, the Saint Francis theology chair.

“They can be hard, but they can be easier if there’s a good spiritual motivation to them,” he says.

As a Roman Catholic, Kumfer will fast during certain seasons, abstaining from drinking any liquid aside from water and paring down his meals to only the essentials, eliminating snacking between meals entirely.

“There are some severe fasts where people would eat nothing at all for a day,” he says. “Especially for Americans who nibble all day long, that can be difficult.”

A more drastic fasting occurs in Islam. During Ramadan, one of the five pillars of Islam, Muslims will fast for a 28-day lunar month from sunrise to sunset, abstaining also from sensory pleasures including smoking and sex, in praise of Allah.

Kumfer also brings up the Jewish Sabbath, which takes place from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

“If you stop and think about it, one-seventh of your lifetime is given in worship to God,” he says. “(Non-Jews) look at it as a day not going into the office.”

In a largely Christian society, Sunday is seen as the day of worship, so it can be seen as unusual for a Jewish store owner to close on Saturdays.

If Jews, Muslims, Christians or any other religious group ever find it difficult to follow a religion’s teachings, Kumfer says, they can find comfort in knowing they’re not the only ones fasting or wearing dresses to work in a warehouse.

For example, “I’ve talked to Muslims, and Ramadan struck me as just a little difficult, but one of the things they said was, ‘When I get up in the morning and the sun rises, I realize the sun is setting somewhere, and there are Muslims who are going to eat, and I’m not yet,’ ” Kumfer says.

“There’s a wave of worship. There’s a wave of celebration. There’s a wave of fasting that’s a group thing, that a good chunk of mankind is embracing God.”

jyouhana@jg.net