Christians and Atheists and Sikhs and Pastafarians Must All Fight for Religious Freedom in America

[Panich52]

Christians and Atheists and Sikhs and Pastafarians Must All Fight for Religious Freedom in America – First Freedom Center

There have been a number of blog posts and opinion pieces out lately that call on Christians to fight for religious freedom in the United States.

snip

In short, all of us should stand up for the religious liberty that is our birthright. James Madison, following Adam Smith, brilliantly considered the scenario of having scores of different “factions” vying for predominance. His conclusion, famously spelled out in The Federalist No. 10, was that such a cacophony of claims would overwhelm any single group’s privileged station.

Of course, for most of American history, Protestantism has held a privileged and numerically dominant place. When the founders spoke of a diversity of sects, they largely meant a diversity of Protestant denominations. Still, as Denise Spellberg points out in her 2013 book, Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders, the revolutionary idea of non-Protestant religious groups becoming part of the civil polity was a notion that shaped the country’s foundational understanding of religious liberty.

snip

More:

http://www.firstfreedom.org/blog/christians-atheists-sikhs-pastafarians-must-fight-religious-freedom-america/

[KG]

1. Atheists seek freedom FROM religion

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. Yes, but most of us are in favour of freedom of religion too. N.T.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

2. There is plenty of religious freedom here, including and especially the freedom

of fake Christians to express deep hatred for gay folks, Muslim folks, etc.

By fake Christians I mean all non liberal Christians.

[SidDithers]

7. They're not fake Christians...

They just happen to be bigoted Christians.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Sid

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

8. how can you be a Christian and a bigot

[Fred Sanders]

3. For crying out not loud enough, religious freedom is in the creaking Constitution. Why should there

be any more fighting?

That was settled law hundreds of years ago, the Christofascists are the ones that should be doing the fighting, by legal and not nihilistic means. We should be ones just pointing that out.

Christians being persecuted, Fox says? Folks are being persecuted, but Christians in America are not the persecuted ones.

I say to Fox and Fascsists, look at the Constitution and go away.

I am not fighting you, why should I, when you are ones fighting the Constitution?

[hrmjustin]

4. I think we have religious freedoms in this country and they sre not in danger.

[Padiddle]

6. The French do it better

The principle of laïcité (secularism) in the French constitution requires that religion be confined to the realm of religious institutions and private worship, and is not allowed to influence or be involved with public life or civil law. This is what pisses off the Muslims there: they're not allowed public expression of Islamic tenets in public life (i.e. the burka ban), and they sure as hell are not allowed to insert Islamic tracts into the French laws or constitution any more than Christians are allowed to insert Biblical admonitions into the law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La%C3%AFcit%C3%A9

Church and state are more explicitly separated in France than in the U.S. We should follow their example and kick religion out of government and the public square altogether. Nobody's saying you can't be Christian/Muslim/Jewish etc. or that you should be arrested for believing whatever you believe or not. But you should have to do it on your own time. And you shouldn't have the right to impose that belief system on anyone else, whether by force, coercion, or "moral stipulations" in the law.

[MisterP]

10. yeah, they don't arrest people for wearing the wrong clothes or for making Facebook posts

hey, wait a minute

[angrychair]

9. all religion is harmful to society

And a clear and present to the future of the human race. We should no more foster or condone religious beliefs than we would anti-vaxxers or climate change deniers.

If we're going to allow religion than we should not speak a word to change the "belief" that a polio vaccine will make a kid's ass hair fall out and is a government plot to turn us all into communist. Global warming isn't real because its snowing outside and its normal for Boehner to have a tan like that in January...in Ohio. Beliefs like that are just fine. Not harmful to public policy or scientific research. Nope.

No, I AM NOT saying we should harm or arrest religious people. I am saying we should not accept or foster religion of any kind. These superstitions and fairytales are not in humanity's best interest.