Freedom of Religion is Freedom From Religion

It is a fast changing world. Perhaps you are afraid you and your culture are being left behind. Maybe you are afraid your religion is losing its place in your country and worse you fear that others might take its place. It's scary.

Given that fear it can be natural to want the government to protect you. Indeed the government should but how should that work?

Should you codify your religion, or the morality of your religion, into law? That makes sense, quick article right? Well, there's always a catch.

This mindset assumes that your religion has and will always have the majority. As a member of a majority community, you might think that's a safe bet. But in the back of your mind, remember, you had that fear that perhaps it isn't.

Religious Restrictions

What would happen if you were not in the religious majority in your area? Would you want to be subject to the laws of another religion? If your area was predominantly Mormon could you handle alcohol or coffee being banned? If Hindu, what would happen if you were prohibited from eating beef? If Muslim or Jewish could you tolerate bacon being banned? What about prohibiting working on a Saturday? What about changing the way the clock worked so that the day ended at sundown rather than midnight?

I'm sure you'll agree that there are at least a few of those things that you'd want to keep as they are! I do too. So do we make laws that say "the sabbath can only be Sunday" or "beef cannot be banned" or "coffee is a right of the people"? You could, but if your group lost the majority, wouldn't the incoming faith change the law? What would they change it to, would it be to neutrality or toward their belief?

Instead, what if it was ingrained in the culture and in the legal process that the law does not codify religious restrictions that don't harm others? Now rather than undoing specifc laws about specific points, they would have to change the culture of religious independence. That seems like it would be much harder to do.

Religious "Liberty"

A new phrase in America is "religious liberty", meaning the right of a business to operate under the guidance of the religion of the owner or operator. Again, this makes sense on the surface. Why should you be compelled to serve a customer whose religious or moral beliefs are different from yours?

But again you have to ask yourself, are you willing to take what you dish out? How would you feel if you went to a florist and they wouldn't sell you flowers if you weren't wearing a headscarf, or a yarmulke? What if they wouldn't serve you food, or even speak to you, because you are a woman, or a married woman, or an unmarried woman? What if a zoning board wouldn't let you build a house that didn't have a room to hold one year's food storage?

Should they be allowed to do that to you? I suppose if you think your morality should be at liberty then so should theirs.

Would it be safer to say that we don't allow service to be refused based on the operator's morality?

Freedom From Religion

Live as your religion tells you, when the law doesn't codify it one way or the other then you are free to live that way. Others might not live in your morality, if so, you may want to share your beliefs with them, so they can see why you live the way you do. Some won't change, others might.

The government should protect you from changing religious affiliation, but it should do so by making sure all are free to live apart from religion.

And if you can't discriminate against them, then they can't discriminate you. And if they wanted to change the laws it wouldn't be changing which discrimination is allowed, but allowing discrimination; something many would never stand for.

The only way you can be sure that you will continue to be free to practice your religion as you see fit, and to live and shop where you want, is to separate that from religion entirely.