(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . My Thoughts Regarding Personal Religious Freedom in a Very Urban Environment [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-12 Let me preface this by saying that I am a white CIS male over 65 and an agnostic. Then let me proceed from there. I have worked or lived in DC, Maryland, and various towns in West Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for over 35 years. During this time I have met and worked with literally hundreds of people from most continents if not most countries. I have said “Mery Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, and various other holiday greetings without a single negative reaction. . . period. While not a believer, I do respect other folks’ beliefs or lack thereof. I have never seen anyone insult anyone for using a greeting that did not match their religious belief. I did discover that many were Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu and even a couple of folks who practiced Zoroastrianism or Sikhism. I was educated about other people’s beliefs and enjoyed conversations about the topic with them. People have spoken pretty much the same greetings as I have to me. I have never taken offense. No one I know has ever taken part in a protest against a religion, demanded that someone remove a religious symbol from their home or car. I have heard of a few instances where some folks protested that a government building hosted a single (as opposed to many) religious symbol. I have not seen such a protest personally. No one I know was ever stopped from practicing their beliefs at home or in their place of worship. I have never seen or known anyone who protested or requested the removal of the ever-present American holiday decorations that festoon stores, restaurants, and people’s homes. Why am I saying all this? Because I keep hearing about how some people are being prevented from practicing their religion or expressing their religious beliefs. Once I started looking into this more closely I discovered that this was not actually the case. The First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights says explicitly: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Nothing particularly confusing there. It was enacted to allow people who had differing beliefs to practice their religion or lack thereof without interference from the government. It had much to do with the colonists’ experience with state religions in their home countries in Europe. Virtually every country had an established state religion from England to Spain to the Netherlands had some sort of government sponsored, led or controlled relgion. If you were not a part of the established religion in those countries, you could be fined, jailed, prevented from owning property or suffer many other disabilities or punishments. (See the Popery Act of 1698 in England, the 80 Years War in Holland, the Gallican Church in France, etc.) So, what are people so angry or excited about? It appears to be their ability to impose constraints on others based on their own religious beliefs. Things i encountered in my research: Pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth prevention or abortifacients. If they feel that strongly, why become a pharmacist? Physicians write prescriptions, pharmacists fill them. They don’t get to choose. Gynecologists who refuse to perform life-saving surgery on a potential mother whose fetus is literally non-viable? Then why become a gynecologist? Doesn’t that lack of action go against their Hippocratic Oath? People who have claimed that they don’t want to provide a service to people who are LGBTQ+, or follow another belief than themselves? Then why start a business that serves the public? The public includes anyone living in the US! Why should anyone be allowed to refuse service to someone over their religious beliefs or their lifestyle? People who think, having been told by someone, that somehow saying Merry Christmas is against the law? Where? Nowhere I could find. People who have been told that Sharia law is practiced in the US? Where? Nowhere I could find. People who think people of the Jewish faith control the government? Where? Nowhere I know of. My wife is Jewish, and her family are working class and far from rich, as are most of the Jewish people I know. Some are upper middle class — doctors, lawyers, and such. I am sure there are rich Jewsih people just as there are rich Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, and so on. Do they run the world? Seems pretty unlikely given the diversity of religions practiced by world leaders. People who think decisions on abortions should be made under their interpretation of Christian beliefs? What about people who do not share that belief? Perhaps some folks hold the mother’s life to be more important than an unborn child’s life. What if people believe a fetus is a “potential life” and not a person until they are born? What if people follow the belief that that a “non-viable” fetus is not a person? All are perfectly valid religious positions to hold. I suspect the problem here is that a lot of people feel entitled to force their beliefs on others. That is not religious freedom. That, when supported by a Congressional Bill, or Supreme Court decision, or Executive Order is literally the “establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. America has managed to function and progress as well as it has by considering the fact that America changes over time. It has fallen backwards at times, and it has leaped ahead at times. We have managed to outlaw slavery and outgrow the need for wars of conquest. Lately we seem to be headed a little bit backwards on a lot of fronts. This is just one of them. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/12/2186880/-My-Thoughts-Regarding-Personal-Religious-Freedom-in-a-Very-Urban-Environment Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/