When Religion and Liberty Collide

[DonViejo]

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When Religion and Liberty Collide

4 HOURS AGO - BY SALLY KOHN

How right-wing conservatives are using the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case on contraception to force their religious views on the nation.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

— First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

When early American settlers fled Europe to seek the shelter of new shores, the religious freedom for which they were searching had two components. Indeed, our founding fathers and mothers were pursuing freedom *of* religion—the freedom to practice whatever faith they chose, free from retribution or discrimination by the government or their fellow citizens.

But the earliest of our national brethren were also motivated by freedom *from* religion. In the 1600s and 1700s, enforced uniformity of religion was common throughout Europe—an extension of the belief that there was one true religion and it was the job of government to enforce it. Persecution of religious minorities was common, whether it was Protestants persecuting Catholics or Catholics persecuting Protestants or both persecuting Mennonites. Yes, the settlers who came to America wanted to express their own religious beliefs, but an equal if not greater motivation was escaping the reality of religious tyranny embedded in government.

To put it mildly, our forbearers would be appalled by how right-wing conservatives are trying to use government to force their religious views on all of us.

Make no mistake, this is what Hobby Lobby wants to do—use government to push a conservative religious agenda. After all, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, signed by the President and deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court, which would among other things ensure that all health insurance plans in the United States offer basic levels of coverage, including coverage for contraception. That is a secular goal rooted in basic principles of public health as well as economics (that it is more cost effective to cover birth control than maternity care and pediatric care) not to mention a basic respect for a woman’s right to control her own reproductive choices. And the law provides for individual freedom *of* religion—individuals are, of course, free not to access contraception, and religious institutions are even exempted from contraception coverage requirements.

full article
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/12/03/how-right-wing-conservatives-are-using-hobby-lobby-to-force-their-religious-views-on-sex-on-the-nation.html