Religious Freedom to Discriminate?

Religious Freedom to Discriminate?

For centuries, people have used the belief that homosexual behavior is a sin to force gay people into abstinence or sham marriages; to criminalize same-sex conduct and imprison, torture, and kill gay men; and to condemn lesbians as witches and kill them. In America, fortunately, laws against homosexual conduct and laws barring same-sex marriage have been found unconstitutional. Nevertheless, even now, gay teens can be sent to “Christian” facilities to be brainwashed out of their God-given sexuality, as in the movie, Boy Erased.  Some enlightened states have banned this type of “therapy,” because it doesn’t work but instead causes depression and suicide. However, there is no federal prohibition against it.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 was designed to prevent government regulations from impinging on persons’ right to the free exercise of their religion. The law provides religious adherents with exemptions from general laws, for example, to allow them to wear religious haircuts or headgear despite laws or rules against them, or to allow them to observe their own religious holidays.

However, some Christians argue that their religious liberty gives them the right to discriminate against those who don’t share their rules. Thus, religious businesspeople wouldn’t be required to provide their services to all comers, so, no wedding cake for same-sex couples, or worse, no medical care for LGBT people. Religious employers seek to avoid the ACA’s mandate to pay for contraception.

In 2017, Trump signed an executive order directing the Attorney General to provide guidance to federal agencies in interpreting this law. The clear purpose of his order is to allow entities and people regulated by federal agencies to rely on their “religious views” to discriminate against women and LGBT people. For example, religious hospitals could refuse to provide abortions or could ban same-sex spouses from visiting their sick and dying partners, and Social Security employees could refuse to process benefits for a surviving same-sex spouse.

Such regulations would be monstrous. Of course, religious groups have the right to set standards for their own adherents, but it stops there. Their free exercise of religion does not allow them to impose their standards on outsiders, nor does free exercise allow adherents of any faith to discriminate against members of another faith or to exclude Muslim immigrants from the country. It seems to me that allowing such discrimination would violate the First Amendment by establishing that brand of Christianity as the state religion. America with a state religion would be a theocracy. I don’t want to live in any theocracy, let alone one that denies my right to exist.