Louisiana has decided that monks do not have a right to make an earnest living. Today, the monks of Saint Joseph Abbey are considered criminals for simply selling caskets; a practice they have been engaged in for over a hundred years. The government has threatened the monks with outrageous fines and even jail time if they do not first obtain a funeral director’s license.
Justin Brown, a monk at Saint Joseph Abbey explains in the video below, “We are not a wealthy monastery, and we want to sell our plain wooden caskets to pay for food, health care, and the education of our monks.”
In their article, “Free the Monks and Free Enterprise,” the Institute for Justice explains that, “to sell caskets legally, the monks would have to abandon their calling for one full year to apprentice at a licensed funeral home, and convert their monastery into a “funeral establishment” by, among other things, “installing equipment for embalming.”
But for what purpose? The caskets themselves are not considered a public health issue. This law is one of thousands that restricts the economic liberties of individuals in order to enrich special interest groups. Watch the video below to see how the Institute for Justice is going after the Louisiana government in order to free the monks and to free all individuals who want to make an earnest living.
stupid government! !They are building a box. The mortuary sells them to the customer. Nothing more. Just an excuse to tax more
Why not market the boxes as garage storage for large items and leave it at that. The buyer, of course, could use the box for whatever they wanted to, even if it was to store their Aunt Peggy.