I think it’s time for an Eleventh Commandment.
Thou shalt not confuse the freedom to exercise your religion with the freedom to impose your religion on other people.
Because here’s the deal: Religious discrimination is a real thing. At this very moment it is a tragically real and present danger to thousands upon thousands of people around the world being targeted for violence and even extermination because of their religious beliefs.
History — both modern and ancient — is likewise tragically full of examples of times and places where religious discrimination has been the source of persecution, death and destruction. The perversion of religion into a weapon of mass destruction is antithetical to the core beliefs of all the world’s great religions. And yet none of those religions have escaped the sad reality that human beings — given the power to do so — will use God as an excuse to inflict pain and suffering on other human beings.
Our forefathers knew that. And they brought that knowledge — that wisdom — into our Bill of Rights with a First Amendment that begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...”
The First Amendment both prevents the government of the United States from privileging one religion over another and protects each and every one of us — as American citizens — to believe whatever we choose — or choose not — to believe about what God thinks, approves of or blesses. It is what protects our democracy from becoming a theocracy.
And, as we watch with sadness and horror the nightly news stories of religious wars and sectarian violence, this guarantee of religious freedom is something Americans of all religions — and no religion — should rejoice and be glad in.
It is not something some Americans should distort and exploit to further their homophobic agenda and attack on LGBTQ citizens — but that’s exactly what is happening in arguments this week before the Supreme Court.
The flagrant distortion of the ideal of religious freedom into a vehicle for religion based discrimination by those claiming the right to discriminate based on their religious beliefs has absolutely nothing to do with baking a wedding cake and everything to do with dismantling equal protection. And it is just the tip of the iceberg of dozens of pending cases – and pieces of legislation — opening the door for discrimination, inequality and prejudice antithetical to the core American value of liberty and justice for all.
To put it in historical perspective, whether it is a cake shop or a bus stop; a lunch counter or a marriage license counter it is the same issue and it is the same answer: The First Amendment protects your right as an American to the free exercise of your religion. It does not protect your right to use your religion as an excuse to discriminate against other Americans.
Because religious discrimination is a real thing. And this blatant effort to exploit it in order to attack LGBTQ Americans is a reprehensible thing.