TEST: Is your religious liberty REALLY at risk?
(The following commentary is part of a weekly series called “Yahweh Speaks” by Yahweh. Yahweh is an assumed name to protect his identity on-line. He is a noted free thought advocate and Constitutional attorney. His series airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Airdate 10/13/12)
Thanks to Huff Post and AC Cooper for the following:”How to Determine if Your Religious Liberty Is Being Threatened in Just (20) Quick Questions.” Just pick “A” or “B” for each question.The original Huff Post had 10 questions , to which I have added 10 more.
1. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to go to a religious service of my own choosing.
B) Others are allowed to go to religious services of their own choosing.
2. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to marry the person I love legally, even though my religious community blesses my marriage.
B) Some states refuse to enforce my own particular religious beliefs on marriage on those two guys in line down at the courthouse.
3. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am being forced to use birth control.
B) I am unable to force others to not use birth control.
4. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to pray privately.
B) I am not allowed to force others to pray the prayers of my faith publicly.
5. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Being a member of my faith means that I can be bullied without legal recourse.
B) I am no longer allowed to use my faith to bully gay kids with impunity.
6. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to purchase, read or possess religious books or material.
B) Others are allowed to have access books, movies and websites that I do not like.
7. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) My religious group is not allowed equal protection under the establishment clause.
B) My religious group is not allowed to use public funds, buildings and resources as we would like, for whatever purposes we might like.
8. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Another religious group has been declared the official faith of my country.
B) My own religious group is not given status as the official faith of my country.
9. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) My religious community is not allowed to build a house of worship in my community.
B) A religious community I do not like wants to build a house of worship in my community.
10. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to teach my children the creation stories of our faith at home.
B) Public school science classes are teaching science.
11. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) The name of some other god is used in the Pledge and currency of the realm.
B) The name of my god is not allowed on every public school, public building, public event.
12.My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) At Friday night football games they invoke gods foreign and alien to me to bless their teams.
B) I can not force all others to invoke MY god, only, when blessing the teams
13. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Children in Public schools are required to pray to gods and religions I don’t recognize and practice.
B) I can not force public schools to force other kids to pray to my god and practice my religion.
14. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Some people are required to take an oath whether they believe in god or whether their religion prohibits swearing and oath.
B) I can not force all people to swear an oath to my god.
15. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Public events begin with an invocation beseeching the blessings of gods foreign and alien to me.
B) I can not require that all public events begin with the invocation of my god, only.
16. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Members of different faiths are not permitted to inter-marry.
B) I am not permitted to require by law that only members of the same faith marry each other.
17. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Members of different faiths are not permitted to hold public office.
B) Members of my own faith are not the only ones allowed by law to hold public office.
18. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) People are not allowed to practice their own religious rituals within the privacy of the home.
B) I am not permitted by law to outlaw others’ religious rituals because they are really cults.
19. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) It has been legally proclaimed that some faiths, not others, are true and inerrant
B) It has not been declared that my faith, alone, is true and inerrant
20. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) The Constitution, which makes no mention of any god, may be used to legally prioritize the primacy of religions foreign and alien to me.
B) The Constitution is not construed to mean that xtianity shall be considered as FIRST among equals.
“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
October 14, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Thanks for the “like” lielung1980
October 15, 2012 at 5:22 am
I endorse everything Mr. Yahweh says in this commentary, and not just because I consider him a friend and colleague at “American Heathen.” However, I wonder if he has seen the response to this Religious Liberty Test posted in September 2012 by somebody calling himself (or herself) ready1923:
1. My religious liberty IS at stake when the Administration tries to tell my Church who they can hire or fire. (Hosanna Tabor vs EEOC 2012)
2. My religious liberty IS at stake when the government tries to charge a Christian homeless shelter with religious discrimination. (Intermountain Fair Housing Council vs Boise Rescue Mission 2011)
3. My religious liberty IS at stake when a Christian is prevented from putting a religious statement on an article that they are purchasing (Tong vs Chicago Park District 2004)
4. My religious liberty IS at stake when a person is refused an exemption to a dress code or other policy even though others are given exemptions for “secular” reasons (Fraternal Order of Police vs. Newark 1999)
5. My religious liberty IS at stake when a 60-year-old monument is being threatened by a group that wants to remove all religious symbols from society. (Freedom From Religion Foundation vs Weber 2012)
6. My religious liberty IS at stake when the government forces religious institutions and employers to cover contraception and abortifacients against their deeply held religious beliefs, or face crippling fines. (EWTN vs. Sebelius; Wheaton College vs. Sebelius; Ave Maria University vs. Sebelius; Colorado Christian University vs. Sebelius; Belmont Abbey College vs. Sebelius; Seneca Hardwood Lumber Company vs. Sebelius; Hercules Industries vs. Sebelius and approximately 36 others 2012)
Again, I agree with Yahweh, and I do not endorse the notion that these are clear examples of religious discrimination, but it is important also to hear and respond to the other side.
John Mill
October 15, 2012 at 8:19 am
John Mill : Thanks for these counter points . Is the response containing such on HuffPost?
October 15, 2012 at 8:49 am
YHVH resplies:
1. My religious liberty IS at stake when the Administration tries to tell my Church who they can hire or fire. (Hosanna Tabor vs EEOC 2012)
> If it’s the Church, itself, the Govt cannot control employment. If it’s peripheral church activities, the Govt may ensure compliand with laws as it does all other organizations to which the law applies.
2. My religious liberty IS at stake when the government tries to charge a Christian homeless shelter with religious discrimination. (Intermountain Fair Housing Council vs Boise Rescue Mission 2011)
> If the homeless shelter receives NO government funds or subsidies and is not engaged in interstate commerce it may limit its employees and receipients of their aid to those of their faith
3. My religious liberty IS at stake when a Christian is prevented from putting a religious statement on an article that they are purchasing (Tong vs Chicago Park District 2004)
>I am not aware of any restrictions for a BONA FIDE purchaser adulterating his/her newly acquired property with religious statements or iconography(except as such may violate residential zoning restrictions)
4. My religious liberty IS at stake when a person is refused an exemption to a dress code or other policy even though others are given exemptions for “secular” reasons (Fraternal Order of Police vs. Newark 1999)
>First, the “other policy” claim is too vague to merit reply. Insofar as “dress code” it depends on the place and circumstance. For example, for the Fraternal Order of Police to wear their Uniforms at a Public School function might survive scrutiny as against other attire at a Public School Function. Generally, however, school dress codes may be upheld, whereas societal dress coders not. Also, such should always be applied in a non-discriminatory manner.
5. My religious liberty IS at stake when a 60-year-old monument is being threatened by a group that wants to remove all religious symbols from society. (Freedom From Religion Foundation vs Weber 2012)
>If the monument was improvidently and UNconstitutionally erected in the first place, the length of time is generally no impediment to its removal on Constitutional grounds. By way of rough analogy, separate “black school” were erected for scores of years before their UNconstitutionality was declared forced their removal or other remediation
6. My religious liberty IS at stake when the government forces religious institutions and employers to cover contraception and abortifacients against their deeply held religious beliefs, or face crippling fines. (EWTN vs. Sebelius; Wheaton College vs. Sebelius; Ave Maria University vs. Sebelius; Colorado Christian University vs. Sebelius; Belmont Abbey College vs. Sebelius; Seneca Hardwood Lumber Company vs. Sebelius; Hercules Industries vs. Sebelius and approximately 36 others 2012
>NO CHURCH, itself, is required by the ACA to provide coverage for contraception or abortifacients. Business enterprises operated by churches not wholly staffed by congregants and not solely providing for its congregants MAY be dealt with EQUALLY with other business enterprises, profit or non-profit. However, even then there are exemptions for religious affiliated medical providers; they can opt to have the insurance company,itself, collect the premium and provide the services , and thus the religious-affiliated employer is out of the loop
October 15, 2012 at 9:06 am
PS : The TONG case was a “buy a brick” in a quasi-public setting, governed by a quasi-govt entity that prohibited not only religious statements, but also corporate logos, profanity, etc.
October 15, 2012 at 11:24 am
Hewhay, in answer to your question, the replies I cited above were posted on 9/12/12 and may be lost in the mists of Internet Time… But I saved them just for you!
October 15, 2012 at 2:44 pm
I went to Huffpost, but could not find the repsonse there.