Why Our Religious Freedom Needs More Protection

Religious Freedom, ,

Joseph La Rue and Kerri Kupec of Alliance Defending Freedom offered an excellent explanation last week on why our basic religious freedoms need better protection.

Even though the U.S. government has a federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act protecting religious liberties from encroachment by the federal government, the State of Arkansas has yet to pass a similar law protecting religious expression at the state level. Below is an explanation of what can happen when a state does not adequately protect the religious liberties of its citizens.

So, what happens in states that don’t have a clear [Religious Freedom Restoration Act]? Elane Photography in New Mexico is a perfect illustration.

Elaine Huguenin, the Christian owner of Elane Photography, declined to photograph what two women called their “commitment ceremony.” The women had no trouble finding another photographer because plenty of them were clamoring for their business. But the couple sued Elaine’s business anyway, alleging that it had violated a law banning sexual orientation discrimination.

Elaine, however, did not refuse the women because they identify as homosexual. She declined to photograph the ceremony only because she didn’t want to promote a message at odds with her sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage. So, Elaine asserted a defense under New Mexico’s RFRA, similar to Arizona’s current RFRA, saying that the government should not be able to force her to promote and participate in the ceremony when doing so violates her religious convictions.

Forcing someone to disregard their faith and act contrary to it violates their dignity as a person. But that’s what happened to Elaine because the ambiguity in New Mexico’s RFRA, like Arizona’s current one, allowed the New Mexico Supreme Court to hand down a strained interpretation that actually distinguished between Elaine as a photographer and Elaine as a small-business owner.

Click here to read the entire column.

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Atheist Group Tries to Stop Students from Helping Starving Families

Religious Freedom,

A public school in Minnesota has taken flak for letting schoolchildren participate in a service project at a local church.

Students in Minnesota took prepackaged meals to Calvary Lutheran Church; the meals were prepared to be sent to starving families in Haiti. The American Humanist Association sent a complaint to the school district, alleging participation in the charitable work of the church violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, despite the fact students did not participate in religious activities as part of the field trip.

AHA writes toward the end of its complaint,

“Very importantly, we fully understand that at least one purpose of this fieldtrip was to have the children participate in charity work intended to assist poverty-stricken people. Such good intentions, however, can be pursued in innumerable other ways that do not involve immersing the unsuspecting children into a theologically-charged environment. We are not opposed to educating children about poverty around the world, nor do we object to their participating in a nonreligious program to provide assistance. Here, however, both the church and the Christian charity involved have an interest in propagating a specific religious message that is contrary to the views of many of the students and their families.”

This statement is significant, because it treats religion like a danger from which “unsuspecting children” must be protected. 

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LRAFB Drops Christian Elective in Effort to be “Inclusive,” Gay-Friendly

Religious Freedom, ,

Winter Wingman Day at Little Rock Air Force Day provided classes to develop service members mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually. While attendance at the event was mandatory, members could choose which three of the offered classes they would attend. The spiritual component of the event, in the chapel, was scheduled to include sessions from “The Art of Marriage,” a video conference developed by FamilyLife, a Christian family ministry headquartered in Little Rock.

When at least one airman complained to the chain of command and sent a letter to Mikey Weinstein, founder of Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the class was dropped. The group’s website states that “Mikey and MRFF have been actively and aggressively protecting members of the U.S. Military from unconstitutional religious influence . . . the only organization dedicated solely to the protection of the religious freedoms and dignity of ALL members of the U.S. Military.”

It appears, however, that Weinstein’s main goal is to silence Christians whom he calls intolerant, a threat, and “Dominionists”—“fundamentalist Christians whose beliefs, tenets, and practices threaten the separation between church and state embedded in the U.S. Constitution.”

(more…)

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