What About My Religious Freedom?

These born evangelical Christians are always harping about “their” religious freedom but what about our religious freedom? What about our belief of non-discrimination.

What about my personal right to be free from your religion?
Lexington Herald Leader via Yahoo News
By Shelley Roberts Bendall
December 16, 2022


Nobody likes to have their rights taken away. Liberals and conservatives can agree on that, but they can’t agree on which rights to protect and which ones to eliminate.

I’d been watching a woman on CNN make the argument she had a right to refuse to create a wedding website for a same same-sex couple. I wasn’t shocked at the case she was making as these are arguments we’ve heard before. What stunned me was the context through which we perceive personal freedoms in this country.

The woman said same-sex marriage goes against her religious beliefs and the government shouldn’t force her to create a unique piece of art (the website) that goes against the basis of her religion.

Here was a woman angry that her freedom to choose who she works with could be taken away when all over the country state legislatures, as well as the Supreme Court, are taking away the freedom of women to control their own bodies. While all rights are important, the discrepancy in immediate relevance to someone’s life is obvious.

She raises some interesting points!

It is OK for the government to compel an 11-year old girl to have her uncle’s baby, but boy are we offended that someone might have to recognize a different kind of family than the one they have.

This is basically the argument the religious right continues to make: You can’t make me do something (make a website) because it offends my religion, but I can force you to do something (have a baby) because my religion says you have to.

Religion shouldn’t dictate laws.

Hypocrisy is nothing new in this country, but religious extremists are slowly eroding our individual rights. It appears they won’t stop until our entire government follows the same rules as their religions. And yes, the woman’s legal representation is provided by the Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that, according to its website, is a, “…world leader in defending…God’s design for marriage and family.”

It is like only their religion counts!

There are a number of religions that allow abortions, but it seems like the only ones that matter are those that don’t allow abortions.

There is a great number of affirming religions but only those that ban  LGBTQ+ count.

How differently we view individual rights in this country. It’s all about personal freedom until they don’t agree with the kind of freedom you want.

There is no scientific or objective reason to outlaw abortion. The arguments are purely religious in nature. The religious right seems to think it should be legal to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community because “freedom”, but it is not OK to give women the right to choose whether to give birth to her rapist’s baby. Because religion.

What about my right to freedom from religion?

I propose a new strategy.

That our religious freedom is being denied, what we need a trans, a lesbian, or a gay man who is a member of an affirming religion who has been refused service because they are LGBTQ+ to sue.

I feel that if we file a discrimination complaint that they violated  our religious beliefs that it will put it in direct opposition to the Supreme Court’s religious freedom rulings, it will force the courts to either agree with us that are “religious freedom” are being abridged, or there is only “religious freedom” to discriminate and not from “religious freedom” being discriminated against.

It will put the courts in a quandary, to chose between freedoms. They will be damn if they do and damn if they don’t. They will have to pick between different religious beliefs.