Tag: religious freedom

8 Other Laws That Could Be Ignored Now That Religions Get To Pick And Choose

From AOL.com

NUDITY LAWS Entire colonies of people are dedicated to the belief that being compelled to wear clothes is wrong. Others don’t believe they should be compelled to make love only indoors.

TAXES Most religions profess a deep affinity for peace (while drenching history in blood in the name of religion, but whatever). Why should religious pacifists be compelled to pay taxes that subsidize war?

LSD There isn’t much more religious of an experience than talking directly with God. Hell, Huston Smith included a section on acid in his definitive book The World’s Religions.

GROWING HEMP If you’ve ever talked to a hemp evangelist, you know belief in the crop borders on the religious.

STONING The Bible is packed with tales of impure women meeting a just end under a pile of stones. Today, in certain countries, they’re known as honor killings. Will the court make an exception to murder for the deeply religious?

GENITAL MUTILATION Female circumcision — more commonly and accurately known as genital mutilation — is central to the practice of some religions, according to some people who have strong beliefs. What is a democracy to tell people otherwise? In fact, the same could go for domestic violence, polygamy and whatever else.

PASTEURIZED MILK For some Amish folk, following a strict religious interpretation of “Do unto others what you would have others do unto you” means selling raw, unpasteurized milk, a practice banned under U.S. law for its potential to carry dangerous bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE To hell with the Violence Against Women Act, when the Quran authorizes you to strike a disobedient wife, as illustrated in Chapter 4, Verse 34. And we don’t have to limit the freedom to Muslim men. As Deuteronomy 25:11-12 testifies, “If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.”

When Freedom of Religion Conflicts with American Laws

What will America look like if religious rights trump all other rights?

We now have three private enterprises contending that the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) is prohibiting the exercise of their religion. They are required by the ACA to provide birth control services to their employees and that is contrary to their religious beliefs. The lead challenger in the case is the Hobby Lobby corporation, a chain of 500 arts and crafts stores that has 13,000 employees. The company is privately owned meaning no one can buy shares in the business. Forbes magazine reports “Obama Administration Suffers A Drubbing In Hobby Lobby Arguments.”

The United States constitution first amendment starts with these words, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”

The arguments by the Hobby Lobby team and the government are contentious. We won’t know the Supreme Court decision for many months.

My problem is that many laws that have existed for generations could be opposed on religious grounds. Examples are Social Security taxes, welfare programs, when should the USA go to war, etc.  In other words does every religious group have the right to decide what it considers acceptable behavior and participation in every passed law?  Or to put this another way do religions have he right to nullify laws?

As explained in Wikipedia: Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), is the case in which the United States Supreme Court found that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education past 8th grade. The parents’ fundamental right to freedom of religion outweighed the state’s interest in educating its children. The case is often cited as a basis for parents’ right to educate their children outside of traditional private or public schools.

Jews want to keep their neighborhoods in the NYC metropolitan area and upstate New York exclusively for them. Using the Hobby Lobby contention that equal housing laws deny them right to practice their religion as dictated by religious beliefs they too would be allowed to keep their communities segregated.

Many religions permit discrimination against people of other faiths. Consequently refusal to serve gays, blacks, or any other group could be viewed as their religious right.

The consequence of a decision favoring the plaintiffs is that many of our civil laws would be deemed unenforceable. This nation would be no freer of religious tyranny than Muslim countries that place religious (Sharia) law above all other laws.

If the plaintiffs in this case prevail then the United States will cease to exist as a country that treats all people of all races, colors, and creeds equal rights. Religious law will prevail.

This translates to “Goodbye America.”