Written by Don Byrd
The Liberty Institute and Family Research Council have released a lengthy report on religious hostility in the U.S. Like some others who track this issue have found, incidents are on the rise. Unlike other groups, though, they find evidence for this not in the increasing claims of religious discrimination in the workplace, or the struggle of some minority faiths to even build a house of worship without a legal battle. Instead, they find increased hostility from lawsuits alleging a violation of church-state separation. From their executive summary:
Attacks on religious liberty in the public arena is [sic] perhaps the most widely recognized form of religious hostility in the United States today. These cases traditionally include challenges to praying at legislative assemblies, challenges to publicly displaying crèches (nativity scenes) or menorahs, and challenges to displaying the Ten Commandments in courthouses. Since the first edition of this survey, however, secularism has pushed the boundaries of religious hostility in the public arena into new areas in which personal religious freedom was heretofore left inviolate. For example, secularists are now challenging memorials to fallen soldiers and veterans if those memorials include religious imagery, such as a cross.
This is just not right. The authors of this report don’t say it outright, but essentially would have us believe that the Establishment Clause is itself hostile to religion. In fact, the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause are both essential. Both must be strong to ensure religious liberty for all. Calling out state-sponsored religious preference and display is not hostility to religion; it’s a necessary step to protecting true religious freedom.
