You can’t have both religious freedom and religious dominance

Last updated on: March 4, 2020 at 5:00 am by Libby Anne

You can’t have both religious freedom and religious dominance 2020-03-03T20:02:22-04:00 Libby Anne

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Friendly Atheist headline directed me to a righteous rant on religious freedom. AOC: The GOP Only Ever Invokes “Religious Freedom” When It Wants to Justify Hate, the headline read. It seems that during a hearing in the U.S. House last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the following:

There is nothing holy about rejecting medical care of people, no matter who they are, on the grounds of what their identity is. There is nothing holy about turning someone away from a hospital. There’s nothing holy about rejecting a child from a family. There’s nothing holy about writing discrimination into the law, and I am tired of communities of faith being weaponized and being mischaracterized, because the only time religious freedom is invoked, it’s in the name of bigotry and discrimination. I’m tired of it.

Huh, I thought. Huh.

I’ve long been tired of the way the Right talks about religious freedom, but I’ve rarely seen the problems with the Right’s religious freedom framework stated so simply and directly. The only time religious freedom is invoked, it’s in the name of bigotry and discrimination, AOC said. And you know what? It’s true.

Here, I’ll make a list of evangelicals’ religious freedom claims.

Bakers should be able to deny service to gay couples.
Catholic groups should be able to deny employees health insurance that covers birth control.
Doctors should be able to deny treatment to transgender individuals.
Religious groups should be able to deny adoptions to gay and lesbian couples.
Private schools should be able to fire gay teachers.

Are you sensing a pattern? I sure am.

I grew up in a conservative evangelical home in the 1990s and early 2000s, and I don’t remember hearing a lot about religious freedom. My impression, based on my own experience, is that “religious freedom” took off as a catchphrase on the Right at the same time that LGBTQ rights became increasingly accepted by the mainstream. From where I’m standing, calls for “religious freedom” look more like a claim developed specifically to discriminate against LGBTQ people than anything else.

It also makes a handy argument for denying people health insurance that covers contraceptives, of course. Still, overall, religious freedom claims’ primary target seems to be LGBTQ individuals.

See, I’m not sure the Right is actually as full-throated in its support for religious freedom as it claims. After all, what does the Right not include in its catalogue of religious freedom? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer called explicitly for a ban on new mosque construction. In some places in the U.S., conservatives have successfully blocked the construction of new mosques.
Evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for a man who called for a “Muslim ban” on U.S. immigration. Evangelical leader Franklin Graham was vocal in his support of this proposal.
Evangelicals tried to ban Harry Potter books from school libraries on the grounds that they contained witchcraft—which, even if they had, what about witches’ religious freedom?

I should be clear that there are evangelicals who do support religious freedom, just as there are evangelicals who oppose Donald Trump. See, for example, the evangelical Left. But then there’s the whole conservative wing of evangelicalism, the wing that is sometimes identified as “fundamentalist” and has gone all-in for Trump.

Recall that those evangelicals—the conservative ones I’m talking about—still want to put Christian prayer back in school, because we’re a Christian nation, dammit. That is not a religious freedom argument. It’s a religious dominance argument. This wing of evangelicals doesn’t believe in religious freedom for anyone but Christians.

Remember, these are the same people who argue that our founding fathers established our country as an explicitly Christian nation and call openly for Christian preference. These are the same people who want school board meetings and city council meetings to open in Christian prayers. They don’t want religious freedom. That’s just a smokescreen they use to justify their bigotry. What they want is religious dominance.

AOC’s comments remind us that this issue isn’t all that complicated. It’s actually really, really simple.

I have a Patreon! Please support my writing!

Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism

religious freedom

Previous Post

March 3, 2020

Politicizing the Novel Coronavirus

Next Post

March 5, 2020 People Say the Darnedest Things

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atheism Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism Family Feminism Homeschool Meta Parenting Patriarchy Politics Purity Quiverfull Social Justice Uncategorized Worthwhile reads

Select a Month February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group believes in a "Memorial" instead of a traditional communion?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Lutherans Catholics Anglicans