Recently I wrote about the many ways freedom of religion is an important issue these days. One of the areas I touched on was Christians and gay weddings. I recently read of a case where the owners of a B&B refused to host a gay wedding. Now the state has fined them $80,000.
Cases like this represent a conflict in people’s rights. I do sympathize with these Christian business owners but don’t believe that gives them the right to discriminate against gays. Undoubtedly they provide services to straight couples who have committed adultery or other acts that violate their religious creed. If they were forced to participate in the wedding or create a blasphemous cake, that’s a different matter. Even if I believe they are in the wrong, I don’t believe it gives the government or anyone else the right to try to destroy their livelihood or worse. An $80,000 fine is ludicrous. Even worse is the couple that had to close their business and go into hiding because of death threats. Many on the left will go to ridiculous extremes in the name of political correctness. Yet the vilest attack is deemed to be perfectly acceptable if aimed at those with whom they disagree. Even threats of violence will fail to get a rebuke. It’s time for everyone to lower their voices and show some respect to those that don’t share their opinions.
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Before the Revolutionary War many colonies required that everyone join a particular religion. Dissenters could be imprisoned, tortured or even killed. This led the Founding Fathers to mandate freedom of religion. For many years this seemed to be a settled issue. The rise of politically active evangelical Christians and Islamic radicals has brought this issue front and center. It is hard to pick up a newspaper without reading a story that involves freedom of religion.
In my opinion no government should endorse a religion, restrict a person’s right to practice their religion or confer special privileges on members of a particular faith. It is vital that common sense be used in applying these standards. Like the KKK, militias and other fringe groups, the radical jihadists make up a very small portion of the Muslim community. We need to take strong action to ferret out anyone who wishes to do us harm. This has led some politicians to exploit our fears by attacking everyone of that faith. Most noteworthy is Trump’s call to ban all Muslims entry to the country and Cruz’s call to patrol Muslim neighborhoods. This is not only patently illegal, it is counterproductive. We should focus on the needles not the haystack. Clearly having a teacher instruct children on his or her religion is a violation of the separation of church and state. Yet many want to go to ridiculous lengths to remove even the most innocuous reference to a faith from government. If a valedictorian wants to make reference to a deity, I see no harm. Schools and colleges ban the use of the word Christmas even though it is also a secular holiday. Recently a case has gone to the Supreme Court that pits the Little Sisters of the Poor against the Obama administration. President Obama seems to feel that the right to free contraception should take precedence over freedom of religion. We hear a lot of claptrap about denying women the right to contraception. That’s not even in question. They claim that they only require health insurers to cover it . They do not realize that most groups of a decent size do not purchase health insurance. They pay the claims themselves and hire insurers to administer the program. Forcing religious groups to go against their belief is clearly wrong. The so-called religious freedom laws are also in the news. These arose over the refusal of bakeries, photographer, etc. to provide their goods and services to gay weddings. These laws will open the floodgates to all kinds of religious discrimination. This is not acceptable. Any business that serves the public must serve all the public. However, they still have control over what they sell. For example, a Christian baker cannot be forced to bake a pornographic cake. We need to take guidance from the framers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and push for freedom of religion for all. That is part and parcel of what America is all about. Virtually all of us lock our doors. Many install burglar alarms. We do this to keep burglars from stealing our stuff. Yet, as a country, we face another group of people that take far more than burglars. Those guys carry badges.
It’s all part of a program with the nice legal sounding name of civil asset forfeiture. This allows law enforcement agencies to seize property if they suspect a crime. You can lose your property even if you aren’t convicted or not even charged. The agencies involved get to divvy up their booty. You can try to get your property back but will need to hire a lawyer and go to court. Often this will cost more than the value of the lost property. These laws were enacted to cripple large criminal organizations. However, ordinary citizens are often the victims. Since those seizing the property get to profit by it, there is obviously tremendous opportunity for abuse. Sometimes people can lose more than their property. Take the case of Donald Scott. One morning 31 officers came charging onto his ranch and broke down his front door. In the process he was shot and killed. Supposedly he was running a massive marijuana operation yet a high tech search of his property failed to uncover a single plant. The Justice Department recently suspended its program for budgetary reasons but it is now back in business. This allows police departments to seize assets under federal as well as state laws. Our law enforcement agencies have difficult, dangerous jobs. Abuses by a few rotten apples tarnish the image of those who are trying to protect and serve us. This program needs to be reined in. |
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