The Bogus "Religious Freedom" Ruse of Modern Day Pharisee Christians

From the Blog of Michael in Norfolk

Yesterday afternoon the boyfriend and I attended the funeral of one of his elderly clients in a beautiful old church in downtown Hampton. One of the banners hanging in the sanctuary had the statement "Love One Another as I Have Loved You." From what I know of this church, many of its members do indeed work to follow this motto which, if applied universally would transform society. Sadly, the professional Christian set and modern day Pharisees among conservative denominations - the Christianists if you will - act as if they have never heard the passage. Instead, their public pronouncements are almost without exception focused on hatred. Hatred towards gays. Hatred towards minorities. Hatred towards non-Christians. Hatred towards Hispanics and immigrants. It truly is all about who and what they hate. Closely tied to this underlying theme of hatred is a contempt for the right of others to hold different religious beliefs. Or - God forbid - wish to live their lives as they decide and not as the Christianists would dictate. This contempt carries over into the disingenuous mantra that gay rights is a threat to religious freedom. If anyone threatens religious freedom, its the ever lying Christianists. Alex Blaze at The Bilerico Project looks at this devious and knowingly disingenuous refrain. Here are some highlights:
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The point, time and time again, isn't about increasing freedom for everyone or even increasing religious freedom for everyone, but making sure that people deemed sufficiently Real American can't be criticized or forced to act with any decency to people deemed less American.
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The jingoism is made obvious by the fact that the people who say that, say, a high school counselor who doesn't want to treat queer students should be allowed to keep their job because of religious freedom are the very same people who oppose the construction of Muslim community centers
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Their appeal isn't to a higher principle when they say that LGBT rights mean less religious freedom - their appeal is for Americans to stop thinking and support the people who look and act most like them. Bryan Fischer, a rightwing crank and neo-Know Nothing, argued just that last week when he said that the First Amendment doesn't cover Muslims, just Christians.
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His opinion is, of course, based on faulty data. He cites a fictional story about Thomas Jefferson realizing that Islam was going to destroy America and says that that means the Founders didn't want Islam protected by the First Amendment.
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But being right or wrong isn't important here since most of Fischer's audience isn't going to look up what Jefferson thought about Islam. The reason I bring this up is that Fischer just plain says what we've been accusing the Religious Right of believing: that religious freedom is important to them insofar as it benefits them, not anyone else.
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He put it right out there that claims for religious freedom are in fact about promoting Christianity. Last I checked, that was against the Constitution. Maybe someone should tell these folks.


For religious bigot "Religious Freedom means to be able to impose their narrow view on everyone else. Freedom from them to take it away from others. They can shove it!