Religion
Related: About this forumWhy claims of conscience matter
Posted at 09:52 AM ET, 03/09/2012
By Charles C. Haynes
Lest we forget, our Framers put religious liberty, or freedom of conscience, first on the list of fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
Why first? In his famous Memorial and Remonstrance, James Madison put it this way:
The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.
But today, 220 years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights, claims of conscience seeking religious exemptions from government laws and regulations are frequently the last to be heard (if they are heard at all) in debates over public policy.
Has our first freedom become an afterthought - or, worse yet, an annoyance?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/why-claims-of-conscience-matter/2012/03/09/gIQAT3xC1R_blog.html
msongs
(67,433 posts)the pill peddler who will not give you a pill because it violates his/her religious beliefs will be the first to scream when you act against their religious belief based on your own.
Warpy
(111,327 posts)and while an individual might feel that contraception is wrong, he can't dictate to any other person whether or not it is. He certainly cannot use an institution to force his dogma on unwilling people.
This is the basic Republican game, you see, of stripping all civil rights from human beings and giving them to organizations, whether corporate or religious, instead.
The Bill of Rights gave nothing to these organizations. These are rights that apply to living human beings, period.
longship
(40,416 posts)I was going to post something about individual vs organizational rights, but you nailed it.
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)edhopper
(33,606 posts)when we as a nation decided that discrimination, even when it is prompted by religious conscience, does not have priority over the civil rights of others.
Or do you think that whites in the South should have been allowed to keep Blacks out of their restaurants because their Church said it was how they should do things.
There are now many Churches trying to get exemptions for people like florist to refuse to service Gay weddings ( see New hampshire).
Is that okay because it's religious?
If these org.s are so against birth control, should they be able to fire anyone who uses it?
This is NOT about individual rights of religious belief. it is using religion to discriminate.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Unlike race, sexual orientation, gender, etc., religious beliefs are malleable and subject to abuse.
Claiming conscience for purely political means is not acceptable, imo.
If religious claims of conscience arguments are the last to be heard, it may be because they are the most challenging to assess.