I have been ordained here for almost a year now and I mainly became ordained to provide a service to my friends who require services such as marriage tailored to their religious beliefs. I personally believe each person's own beliefs are his religion and should be considered a complete different religion and thereby he should be able to create his own doctrine and practices and rituals. One of the beliefs I have chosen for myself is that body modifications including tattoos, piercings scars and even shaving can have an effect on the energy flowing through the body which is used for Magick. To this end I maintain a shaped soul patch or goatee of sorts as I believe it increases my ability to preform Magick and rituals. When I was hired at a fast food place in April I told the manager that I can not shave off my facial hair and he said it was no problem even though the employee handbook said all employees must be clean shaven. Since then we have gotten a new manager who did not say anything about this and so it was not brought up. Then some time in Sept. we were bought out by another company. They stated that they will be enforcing the clean shaven rule and I once again talked with my General Manager about it to which he claimed he could do nothing. So I went to the District Manager who said he would talk with Human Resources. This was 6 days before the Oct 1st deadline that we be in compliance with all of the new company's rules. The deadline came and went and there was no mention of anything so I figured they did not care any longer. I now have recently had to talk with HR and one of the owners over an incident with a shift manager and told them about how she had said my religion was crap and I was acting childish and should shave my face. Now after this the owner has said she requires documentation about my facial hair, she did not elaborate but I believe she wanted a priest or some such religious authority to confirm that it is a religious belief. (Note I know that as per The Civil Rights Act of 1969 Title VII I am not required to have documentation but I figure it would be easier to give her what she wants rather then fight her) If it went to court would I be able to stand up and say that I as an ordained minister of the ULC can testify that this is a sincerely held religious belief?
