An unexpected win for religious freedom

[pinto]

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2015/02/an-unexpected-win-for-religious-freedom/

An unexpected win for religious freedom

FREDERICK CLARKSON
Senior Fellow, Political Research Associates

Religious Freedom Day, the most significant national Day that few had ever heard of, emerged from the shadows this year. There were no picnics or fireworks or speeches by elected officials — and the press largely ignored it. But so much happened just below the national radar. We may have witnessed the first stirrings of a renewed movement for the rights of individual conscience.

It is too early to say whether it was a turning point in our history — but just might have been.

At a time when the Christian Right is making religious freedom the centerpiece of its political program, many of us are beginning to stand up and say that religious freedom is not just for the few.

This year, for the first time, organizations that embrace LGBTQ equality and reproductive justice decided to seize the day — joining with religious and secular agencies and advocates of separation of church and state to commemorate Religious Freedom Day.

Instead of leaving the narrative to the likes of Tony Perkins and the Alliance Defending Freedom who bogusly claim that religious freedom means the right of Christians of the right sort to discriminate, this Religious Freedom Day, many of the rest of us began to tell story of how religious freedom is a great progressive value – and why it is for everyone and not just a few.

Religious Freedom Day commemorates the enactment of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786. Written by Thomas Jefferson and politicked through the Virginia legislature by James Madison, the statute not only disestablished the Anglican Church as the official church in Virginia, but also provided that individuals are free to believe or not to believe as they will, and change their minds—and that this “shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

to William769, x-post from DU's LGBT Group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026168891

[William769]

1. Thank's Pinto.

[cbayer]

2. This is really great. I love it when we take something back from those that

want to use religion to discriminate.

Religious freedom is a great progressive value and GLBT civil rights can use support from every one.