Religious Freedom, Brought to You by Animal Sacrifice and Peyote

[rug]

Because of Tiny Religious Groups Taking a Stand, All Americans Have the Right to Practice Their Faith (Or Not)

JANE COASTON
2h ago

The term "religious freedom" has been the hobby horse of mainstream Christian Americans since long before Donald Trump signed an executive order last week focused on the rights of "people of faith." In cases involving florists who refuse to work with same-sex couples planning a wedding, or Catholic hospitals that will not perform abortions for religious reasons, it is Christians — 70.6 percent of the American population — taking up the spoken mantle of our First Amendment right to freely practice the religion of our choosing. But very often, conservative Christians touting the right to practice their religious beliefs — the very same Christians who don't think Trump's religious freedom executive order goes far enough in protecting them — are talking about the freedom to believe in Jesus Christ and not, say, a monument to Satan.

Which is too bad, because mainstream Christians have the protections they enjoy — including the freedom to, in Trump's words, avoid being "targeted, bullied or silenced" for their faith — in large part thanks to the legislative efforts of religions shared by people they've likely never met, and might not be able to stand if they had. The religious freedom protections that ensure there will never be a literal "War on Christmas" were established on two occasions by religious groups that mainstream believers found abhorrent — and in one instance, when the Supreme Court made the wrong call, evangelical Christians even joined forces with the ACLU to ensure that all Americans would have the right to practice their faith.

There are about 2.5 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States, and roughly 8 million worldwide. Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate any holidays (including birthdays), and, unlike most Christians, they believe that Jesus Christ died on a pole (not a cross), that only 144,000 Christians will go to heaven, and that the End Times began when Satan was cast down from heaven on October 1, 1914. Armageddon, they hold, will come when the United Nations (the "scarlet beast" depicted in the biblical Book of Revelation) destroys all of Earth's governments and all other religions. Believing literally in a Biblical verse in which God commands His followers to not worship any entity besides Himself, Jehovah's Witnesses do not serve in the military and do not salute flags of any country, refusing to pledge allegiance to any authority other than God.

In 1935, a 12-year-old Jehovah's Witness, Lillian Gobitas, and her younger brother William were expelled from their school for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Their refusal to say the Pledge was, according to the school board of the town of Minersville, Pennsylvania, "insubordination." Because of their refusal to salute the flag, Lillian and William were pelted with rocks by townspeople, and local churches boycotted their family's grocery store. Their father, Walter Gobitas, filed a lawsuit to defend his children, who had been forced to attend a private school after their expulsion. In 1940 the case went before the Supreme Court, where in an 8-1 decision the Court ruled that you could, in fact, force someone to salute the flag of the United States. "National unity is the basis of national security," the Court ruled, writing that individual liberties were less important than patriotism.

http://www.mtv.com/news/3011233/religious-freedom-brought-to-you-by-animal-sacrifice-and-peyote/