I was looking around editorial pages for something to make fun of, and instead I found this great opinion piece in the Yakima Herrald-Republic.
My faith is important to me. And I believe that religious faith is a fundamental human right that government should not restrict. My faith may be different from my evangelist neighbor’s in that I believe that two consenting adults who love each other should be allowed to be married no matter what their gender mix is, and I believe that more ethically responsible decisions can be made by women who have access to contraception and abortion services. So no, I don’t feel that my faith, anyway, is under attack.
But I do feel that something is amiss. Our Constitution, thankfully, says that government shall not restrict the free exercise of religion; but I don’t see in any of these examples the government doing that. The government is not requiring people to marry someone of the same gender, or mandating that people take birth control. I understand that filling a “Plan B” prescription may be counter to someone’s religious values, but that is not the same as exercising one’s religion. The Catholic Church is not being asked to actually take birth control pills; they are only being asked to provide reasonable coverage for health benefits like all other employers, and pharmacists are being asked to simply do their jobs. These examples have nothing to do with religious practice.
Sadly enough, freedom of religion among our more religious zelots means that you must believe the way they do. Otherwise you are trampling on their religion.
That’s awesome and from a rather red part of the state. Ha, ha, suck it righties!
The quandary in all this is that some people’s religions demand that they evangelize–that they be able to use any means to persuade others to join them, or to make others live by the same rules as they do. The result is that it’s impossible to allow them to live out their faith without enabling (or at least permitting) them to interfere with the same rights of other people.
The quandry I see is that a lot of people confuse culture for religion. You seen this in the Islamic sects which subordinate women – even wives – to mere household domestic servants, prohibiting them from driving or eaven appearing in public. But you also see it in Christian sects which believe that people have to subscribe to the culture of the south-eastern U.S. in order to be “good Christians”.
We would all be a lot better off if Christians would just keep their eyes on Christ as the example, not to try to follow the example of their political and church leadership. Men will always fail you, Christ never does.