Religious Freedom

Between Marriage Equality and Black Lives Matter - there is big civil rights struggle dividing our modern cultural ideology. Although I remember very little of the 1960's environment, this must seem quite a bit reminiscent for those older that do recollect it. Opinions are quite divided and lines are drawn firmly in the sand.

I certainly have my camps. But I always try to reason as to how something so hurtful and prohibitive manages to escape in the worlds of Indiana & Arkansas among others. Call it what you will, it is hurtful no matter how you disguise it. This article in the Huffington Post gave me clarity in how we arrived where we are. It all hinges on the Supreme Court Decision a year ago with Hobby Lobby. The Religious Freedom adhered to is a vague concept which is meant to cover the MANY types of religious choices in our diverse country with both honor and respect - which sounds worthy in print. But where it gets complicated is at what cost of expression, and then how it imposes on others.  And this is the fatal flaw in the Hobby Lobby case where the courts made a costly judgment error. If the owner of the company has firm convictions, it then becomes your options as an employee also when it applies to women's reproductive choices of your health policy. At this point it is no longer Religious Freedom but Restriction of someone else being imposed onto you.

Thus we are now dealing with a whole Pandora's Box in defense of this ruling. The emphasis seems to be on gay wedding cakes, but it will just as easily apply to prayer sessions over lunch break or the burqa you choose to wear on your head. A business currently now has the right to make those choices for you. So who's freedom is really being advocated and embraced here? In our pluralistic American society of the 21st century it can no longer be assumed that our large population is content to base their lives on the traditional tenets of Protestant & Catholic faiths. Before you scream heresy... As much as we cling to these tenets, our actual founding fathers tried to make a very distinct line separating church and state for these very reasons. Many fled their homelands because of restictions that were placed on them there. They continue to arrive here for similar reasons 200 years later. Until we grasp that idea fairly for both sides, venom will spew and tempers will raise as they are in this day and time.

Huffington Post - Religious Freedom Restoration Act