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The Logical Conclusion of the Religious Right's Religious Freedom of Expression Argument

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This person doesn't realize the Bible promotes bigotry, hate and violence.
This person doesn't realize the Bible promotes bigotry, hate and violence.
(Image by Daily Kos)
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The theocrats in the religious right in the US want to turn the US into a Bible-based Judeo-Christian theocracy. They have been making a lot of progress over the last several years.

In 2017 the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trinity Lutheran Church in a case from Missouri, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, in which the state's Department of Natural Resources denied Trinity Lutheran's request for tax dollars via a grant to buy recycled tires for the Lutheran school's playground. Dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out that the decision holds "...that the Constitution requires the government to provide public funds directly to a church." The theocrats are looking at this decision as a way to further promote their school voucher programs that put tax dollars directly in the pockets of religious schools.

This past June the theocrats had another important victory when the US Supreme Court ruled in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District that a public high school football coach can hold a public Christian prayer event on the 50-yard line on a public school football field after a football game. This, like the Trinity Lutheran case, is a clear violation of the Jeffersonian principle of separation of religion from government.

Currently the US Supreme Court is hearing a case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, involving a Christian woman, Lorie Smith, from Colorado who is a graphic designer and website creator and who owns her own company. She sued the state of Colorado over its law requiring businesses who do business with the public not to discriminate against people over race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. She plans on refusing to create websites that will be used in gay weddings. She claims creating a website for a gay wedding would force her to violate her Bible-based Christian belief in marriage being between one man and one woman.

Another possible case that seems to be headed for the US Supreme Court is from Sumner County, Tennessee. The county commission recently included this statement in its preamble to an official document ensuring the commissioners act "reflective of the Judeo-Christian values inherent in our nation's founding." This is not only a clear violation of the US Constitution, it is factually wrong. The US is not at all founded on Jewish or Christian values. This is evident by the fact that the Declaration of Independence never mentions "Judeo-Christian" values, nor does it mention Moses, Jesus, Judaism, Christianity, the Hebrew Bible nor the Christian Bible. It mentions God four times but only in Deistic terms, such as Nature's God. The US Constitution never mentions Judaism, Christianity, etc., nor does it mention God, not even in Deistic terms. In fact, the US Treaty of Tripoli, which originated in the administration of George Washington and was unanimously ratified during the administration of John Adams, clearly and openly states, "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..."

This interesting and insightful article explains how the religious right and its theocratic law firms and attorneys are gaining one legal victory after another. In a nutshell, they are framing their arguments based on the Free Speech Clause instead of the Free Exercise Clause of the US Constitution. They equate discriminating against gay people as a form of religious-based free speech.

As the image of the top of this article makes evident, many good-intentioned people are not aware of the bigotry and hate promoted in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. If the courts continue to allow religious people to follow the ungodly and harmful teachings in their "holy" books, we are approaching a horrendous future. Take, for instance, Leviticus 20:13. This Bible verse claims God commanded the Jews to kill gay men. After Gentile people co-opted the Hebrew Bible as the Christian Old Testament, even though it was solely and clearly directed only to the Jewish people, this and other repulsive and deadly commands are embraced by many Christians as being a part of God's Word. In addition to killing gay men, the Hebrew Bible claims God commanded the killing of women who are not virgins at the time they are married (Deuteronomy 22:13-21); witches (Exodus 22:18); anyone who curses their parents (Leviticus 20:9), etc., etc., etc. Since already many states allow Christian parents to withhold medical care from their sick or injured children and have laws to protect the Christian parents when they kill their children through Bible-based faith healing, it's rational to believe that if the theocrats gain enough political power, the Bible-based commands for killing people for being gay or for being a witch, etc., would not be too far down the theocratic road.

Objectively reading the Bible can't help but make you appreciate the wisdom of America's Founders in keeping religion and government separate. It also makes you aware of how important it is to continue to keep religion and government separate. Deism is a great way to help people realize they should objectively read the Bible, and all religious "holy" books. This will help protect the Jeffersonian principle of the wall of separation of church and state.

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Bob Johnson is a paralegal and a freelance writer in Florida. He was raised Roman Catholic, but after reading Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason, he became a Deist. In 1993 he founded the World Union of Deists and in 1996 he launched the first web (more...)
 
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