by Mary Ann Glendon, m.washingtonpost.com
The recently-erupted scandal over efforts by IRS officials to penalize conservative organizations has taken Washington and the country by surprise. Few scandals in recent decades have captured the public discourse so quickly or completely.
But careful observers of this “new” scandal will see that it fits a larger pattern of governmental efforts to use state power to enforce ideological conformity. Nowhere is that pattern more evident than in the realm of religious freedom where recent years have seen efforts, both subtle and overt, to squelch diversity of ideas.
No one in the United States is at risk of being tortured or killed by the government on account of his or her religious beliefs, as is the case in many other countries. But as the old Woody Guthrie song goes, “Some rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen.”
Today, millions of Americans whose religious convictions conflict with government-favored policies on abortion and same-sex marriage are increasingly subjected to penalties and classified as enemies of government policy. And official insistence that religious providers of health, educational and social services cooperate with government’s ideological programs threatens a death blow to the diversity that has made our vibrant civil society one of the wonders of the world.
The gravity of the situation is clear from the fact that religious freedom itself is in danger of becoming a second-class right.
Continue reading “Religious freedom is not a ‘second-class right’ – WaPo Re-Blog”
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