1562 Belief Relief

Religion brings out the full range of human creativity. And not just creativity, but creativity infused with belief.
I remember being raised by a Methodist father and a Baptist mother. People on both sides of their religious aisle were appalled. How could they get along? And yet the only difference was one sect believed in full immersion baptism and one believed in sprinkling.
Fortunately, our home had a shower/tub combo.
I like animism. It's one of those religions that has lots of spirits for lots of things—water spirits and forest spirits and walnut toffee spirits. It's like the iPhone of religions. Have a new need? There's an app for that. Have a religious quandary? There's a spirit for that.
Hinduism is close. Lots of gods for this and that. And Hindus take it pretty seriously. Fine with me, as long as devout doesn't descend into fanaticism, I'm pretty tolerant.
But different religions can present different legal dilemmas. Working on Sunday or Saturday or certain weeks or months.
So a New Jersey appeals court just said the Moghul Express, apparently a food chain like Panda Express or Taco Bell, can be sued because they inadvertently served samosas containing meat to vegetarian Hindus. Sued to the tune of the cost of flying the tainted individuals to India to purify their souls in the Ganges River for 30 days. A purification required by their scriptures.
And that's full immersion in the Ganges. No Sprinkling.
Luckily, it’s the souls that are being purified, as the Ganges is a pretty polluted river, where it's not unheard of to see chunks, and soak in the juices of, decaying animal carcasses thrown in by non-Hindu butchers upstream.
You can bet that irony won't stop Moghul Express from learning an important non-spiritual lesson. Label your samosas.
America, ya gotta love it.