There could not be a more jarring juxtaposition between the hearing that the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held last week and the deteriorating state of religious liberty in the United States. The hearing was so unbalanced as to be worthy of being ignored, except to point out how out of touch the House Republican leadership is. The Becket Fund, the Christian Legal Society, and the Alliance Defending Freedom constituted three-fourths of the panel and operate in an echo chamber where, for them, the words “religious liberty” really mean extreme religious liberty. These are the backers of discrimination against LGBTQ and women and who champion the right to impose one’s belief on others. With a somewhat mediating presence, David Saperstein also testified, focusing on the obvious constitutional defects in the leaked draft Executive Order as I discussed here.
Regardless, he has vocally supported the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that has opened the door to extraordinary demands by some to exclude LGBTQ from the marketplace and to violate civil rights. There were no Muslims, or Buddhists, or mainstream Protestants, and no non-believers, who constitute the fastest growing segment of believers in the United States. Of course, there was not a whisper of concern about the children at risk in religious settings, whether they involve sex abuse, medical neglect, or polygamy.
Compare that event to the disturbing developments involving religious liberty in the United States right now: the rising Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that have been nurtured and furthered by a president whose inflammatory campaign rhetoric is impossible to forget, whose executive actions reinforce that rhetoric, and whose transparent political allegiance is to the narrow segment of believers reflected in the House Subcommittee’s line-up.
This rising tide of intolerance shows how deeply important the First Amendment itself is to religious liberty. For the moment, forget RFRA and its invitation to create competing religious universes at odds with each other; forget the despicable First Amendment Defense Act, which Trump promised to sign during the campaign; and forget the “needs” of conservative Christians to impose their construct for society on everyone else no matter who they harm.
Instead, focus on the paradigm established by the First Amendment, which holds that the government may not target a religious group qua religious group. Rather, the government is required to respect all believers and when it veers from the path of neutrality, it hits a brick wall as Trump’s first immigration executive order did.
It has been heartwarming to see Muslims raising funds for the desecrated Jewish graves in Missouri. But really, everyone in the United States needs to wake up and speak out against the prejudices buried in this Administration and Congress and to demand a federal government that does not choose evangelical Christians over every other believer and that does not stand idly or mutely by as real religious liberty is interred. It is not enough for Trump to tell people that he thinks anti-Semitism is “horrible” or for the House Subcommittee to include one Jew on a panel on the purported “state of religious liberty.” They must do more.
First, until Trump fires Steve Bannon, the stench of discrimination and persecution will fill the White House.
Second, Trump needs to unhinge himself from the right-wing Christian lobbyists who want to make their churches into PACs by repealing the Russell Amendment, who want to impose discrimination on LGBTQ in every arena, and who would remove women’s rights as far as they possibly can. And the answer is not that his daughter Ivanka sees a better way. Really?
Third, conservatives need to see what is right in front of them. The Conservative Political Action Conference, where Trump and Pence are speaking this week, invited Milo Y to speak at its convention when it was widely known that he is a raving misogynist. Only when his sick views on child sex abuse (Milo—please get therapy for the abuse done to you) became widely publicized did they back off. What were the president and vice president thinking when they agreed to share a platform with such views? Bannon, Breitbart, and Milo. These aren’t merely “dog whistles” of discrimination; They are a full-on billboard.
Until this faction is removed from the White House and distanced from conservatives, expect the scum to continue to rise to the top of the pond and America to be destabilized and stripped of what makes it truly great: true religious liberty, mutual support across religious boundaries, and the humility to coexist in peaceful diversity.
You, for a ‘scholar’ are missing a key ingredient of true Religious Liberty. First we must have a scholarly, legal definition of what exactly constitutes a religion and differentiates it from a cult. For example, if a group determines how its members (or subset thereof) should dress a certain way, by its rules has the right to inflict harm to others…regardless of their believe in a higher power of any kind., and in a general sense endorses child abuse by enabling marriage of preteen girls,and allowing man-boy sex .. is that not a CULT? By any reasonable definition you might consider it so.
When Mohammad wrote the Koran and engaged in the conversion of population he was able to only covert a handful of the population. Then, through his intellectual process, wrote what might be call Koran-Two. This part of the Koran enabled the followers to kill infidels (non-believers), take their belongings, tax them differently, dismember a thief’s hand, and a foot for then trying to escape, and stone women who are ACCUSED of adultery to be stoned to death, and many other human right injustices. A cult that by doctrine and the law of the land makes the head of state and head of religion one and the same, or where the leaders of of the ‘religion’ determine the direction of the ‘government’ in all matters?
So, in this lay-person, non-scholar’s opinion, you have failed to define religion. Atheists do not believe in anything… is that a religion? Should their ‘religious freedoms’ as individuals, out-weigh the beliefs of religious persons or communities? How can an individual who has ho religious beliefs, who certainly has the right to not having a religious belief, determine whether a school can have a engraved granite stone with the Christian ten commandments? His/her right not to believe is not infringed by the public display of a cross…a statue, or a stone engraving.
So..Ms. Scholar… take a word from a common person.. resolve these concerns and incorporate into law common sense prior to writing law. IF you do not do this, you are just feeding fodder to the body of amoral, unethical lawyers
People who define themselves as “not religious” do not believe in the supernatural, myths, fairy tales, superstitions, or ideas for which there is no evidence. It is incorrect to say they “do not believe in anything”.
Thank you – as a Nullifidian, I believe not only can we respect freedom OF religion but ‘they’ must also respect freedom ‘from’ religion. Just because I don’t believe in ‘their’ gods and angels doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the sanctity of human life, civility toward others, etc. Sheesh!!
Thank you for an excellent article.
Complete ad hominem. Little about the substance of the hearings and how it might impact this writers preferred groups. No wonder the people elected Trump!
Divine Saviour Catholic church, 90065 took me to court twice to shut me up. Twice they lost. I protested with a sign about their noise. Just me by myself on the sidewalk. Church members lied and said I committed a crime I did NOT commit. I went to a jury trial. A jury found me not guilty. This is NOT right when the powerful can lie and take away your civil rights. Shame on them!! This was a SLAPP.
The religious powerful should NOT have more rights than anyone else simply because they call themselves “religious”. The so-called religious people do evil things. And, they can not always be believed. They lie.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/Woman-Fights-to-Stop-Nearby-Church-Bells-303134301.html