I gotcher religious liberty for ya right heah Part II
Digby cuts to the chase in the Religious liberty debate - rights to religious freedom belong to individuals, not institutions.
I was somewhat unpopular for defending the Danish cartoonists and Madonna’s allegedly “sacreligious” stage number (which happened at roughly the same time) against censorship. I realize that these sorts of provocations make people angry and are often unnecessary. (Certainly, when one is occupying a country in which burning their sacred book is considered to be a unparalleled insult, it’s extremely bad policy for government agents to do such a thing.) But in America there is no more obvious test of our willingness to apply the Bill of Rights without prejudice to all comers. It’s fundamental to our civic culture.
At a time when the right is pushing a new definition of religious liberty —- insisting that the right to religious freedom belongs to institutions, not the individual believers —- it’s a good idea to keep this sort of thing out here. It’s not comfortable for anyone, but the Religious Right needs to understand that the whole point is that they don’t get to decide which religions apply —- or whether any religion applies. Social conservatives have a very hard time in general with the definition of freedom —- they think it means they have the freedom to require others to adhere to their beliefs.