But come from very different perspectives:
When did “freedom of religion” become nothing more than the right to abuse other people, particularly women and LGBT people?
Over the past few years, nearly every time someone claims their freedom of religion is being violated, it involves being completely horrid to other people. This observation has some terrifying implications for the LGBT community, given where we are legally.
For example, refusing to provide wedding services to lesbian and gay couples has been the cause célèbre for years. The people doing the discriminating walk away with a cool half million dollars, and the queer people end up with nothing but a lot of death threats and hate mail. People are telling LGBT people “we don’t serve your kind” in other commercial areas as well. Doctors are refusing to treat childrenwith gay parents. Restaurants are telling transgender customers they’re not welcome.
[I checked out that last one. The doctor passed the lesbian kid’s child to someone else in the practice, though the writer seems to indicate that the child was bleeding out and the MD refused to treat the child. Do doctors have a right to refuse patients? I think they do. Do I agree with the MD? No. — Dave]
‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Alan Robertson: I’ve Never Seen Religious Freedom Attacked More Than It Is Today
WASHINGTON – “Duck Dynasty” TV star Alan Robertson said Saturday morning that he can’t remember a time in America were Christian values and religious liberty were more under attack than they are today.
Robertson, the son of Duck Commander founder Phil Robertson and who some regard as the “beardless brother,” spoke to a room full of evangelical and social conservative voters at the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit and proclaimed that he is not afraid to face liberal backlash for publicly voicing his beliefs on biblical teachings on sexuality and marriage.
“We are in a perilous time, where from positions of power, I don’t know that if in my lifetime I have ever seen more of an attack on traditional values, traditional family and really, religious liberty,” Robertson asserted.
I’m fascinated by the total confidence that each side shows. It’s the kind of confidence that makes compromise impossible. Somebody has to win this battle.
Either religious people will be able to refuse to do certain things because of their religious beliefs, or they will be made to do these things.
Forget about baking cakes. This is just the early chapters of very hard times. This is just the kind of fracture is society that makes everyone weaker — at precisely the time when unity is important.
We live in interesting times.
A Conservative Christian Man 