Freedom From Religion

How I wish people would keep their religions to themselves!

Really. I don't care to hear about other people's religions. If I'm interested, have questions or want to learn more about a given religion, I will seek answers. But I don't want people ringing my doorbell to talk to me about their church or their faith. And I especially resent people trying to force me and others to live according to their beliefs.

I don't care what religion someone professes to follow. I have a friend who is Muslim. I have Jewish friends, as well as Christian friends of various denominations. I have a friend who is Buddhist, and I have friends who are atheists and agnostics. Their religious beliefs don't matter to me. When I was in college, I had a roommate who was Mormon and another who was Catholic. I was raised in one of the mainstream Protestant religions. We got along fine because religion was not an issue with us. I haven't been inside a church for many years, but I consider myself to be a Christian.

So I have a real problem with people who try to impose their religious beliefs on others. Don't believe in birth control? Then don't use it, but stop trying to make it difficult to obtain for those who do. Don't like abortion? Fine, that's your right. But stop trying to change the law of the land and make abortions illegal.

The US Constitution protects Americans' ability to worship freely. It also prohibits the establishment of an official religion. I believe the Constitution also gives us the right to be free from religion. We should not be forced to follow a particular religion, and this also means that we should be free from being forced to live according to someone else's religious beliefs. Employees of any level of government must not be allowed to use their religious beliefs to discriminate against others, as was the case with the elected county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses -- part of the job she was paid to do -- to same-sex couples because of her 'religious' objections. 

A growing number of Americans believes that churches that engage in politics -- and many do -- should lose their tax-exempt status. Preachers, priests, rabbis or imams who talk about politics in their homilies or sermons, and those who hint how their congregants should vote,  should have their institution's tax-exempt status revoked, as should any non-religious organization that engages in any form of political activity. 

I worked for the federal government for 23 years, and I was not allowed to put a political sign in my front yard, a political bumper sticker on my car or to campaign for a partisan candidate or discuss politics when I was acting in my official capacity. There were times when I was asked my opinion about an issue that had a political spin, and I would reply that "I don't have an opinion about that" or "My opinion isn't important here."

Now we are dealing with an administration that freely mixes politics and religion. The vice president is a well-known evangelical "Christian" who has publicly criticized gays, wants to make abortion illegal and in general is doing his best to make the country follow his religious beliefs. The same holds true for the secretary of education, who keeps pushing for a 'Christian' public education system.

The founding fathers emphasized separation of church and state for a good reason. It's time to remind today's elected officials of that fact.