I’ll give conservatives this much – when they latch onto a piece of propaganda, they sure as heck dedicate themselves to it. For years they’ve been trying to violate our First Amendment by interjecting religion into our laws. And on some levels they’ve been successful.
But generally they’ve been defeated because our First Amendment is pretty clear that laws cannot be based on religion.
Though the newest “trick” Republicans have tried to employ is the argument they call “religious freedom.” Essentially it’s their way to try to discriminate against people, or deny others their rights, based on the argument that not allowing them to discriminate against certain individuals based on their religious beliefs is somehow a violation of their “religious freedom.”
Though I find it amazing how these people have convinced themselves that attempting to restrict the freedoms of others is somehow “defending liberty and freedom.”
So I thought I’d give 5 examples showing the differences between how liberals and conservatives view “religious freedom.”
1. Abortion
Liberals: Tend to support the right for a woman to decide for herself whether or not she will have an abortion. Even many Christian liberals are pro-choice. Though I’ve rarely met anyone who’s “pro-abortion.” There’s a difference between supporting someone’s right to have control over their own body and liking the decision they make. I’m pro-choice yet anti-abortion. Being pro-choice means that every single American woman has the right to decide for herself what she should do with her own body. If you want to have an abortion, go for it. If you don’t, then you don’t have to. But the point is, liberals support the right for every woman to have the freedom to choose for themselves. If a woman objected to abortions based on her religion she wouldn’t have to have one. But that would be her choice, someone else wouldn’t be making that choice for her.
Conservatives: Under their system of beliefs, abortion would be completely banned. No woman would have the right to have control over her own body. The moment she became pregnant she would lose almost all control she has over what happens to her body over the following 9 months. Under their belief system, every single American woman would be forced to adhere to the religious beliefs of a certain percentage of the population whether they shared those views or not. A woman who didn’t believe in any kind of god whatsoever would be forced to abide by laws restricting the control she has over her body based on a God in which she didn’t believe. Where under the liberal pro-choice banner every woman has the right to choose for herself, if conservatives had their way every woman in the United States would lose the freedom to choose for themselves.
2. Same-sex Marriage
Liberals: Most liberals support same-sex marriage. Under liberal beliefs every American (gay or straight) would have the freedom to marry whomever they love, as long as it was another consenting adult. Americans would have the freedom to choose for themselves who to marry. It’s pretty simple: If you don’t support gay marriage, that’s great, nobody is forcing you to marry someone of the same-sex. But at the end of the day, nobody’s right to marry another consenting adult is restricted – and no church’s right to perform those marriages is restricted either.
Conservatives: Most conservatives believe same-sex marriage is against what the Bible defines marriage as. If conservatives had their way, millions of gay Americans would lose their right to marry whomever they love based on the religious views of other people. Under this situation (as we still see in many states right now) rights of Americans are restricted based on the views of others. So even if a Christian church wants to marry a gay couple, if the state still doesn’t allow gay marriage, that church’s “religious freedom” is restricted because a few other churches don’t believe that they should have that right. Under conservative beliefs on marriage, millions of gay Americans would be denied their rights to marry the person they loved.
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