“Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling nondiscrimination principles with civil liberties.”
Mr. Castro: “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.”
From the report:
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The findings included: “Religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights.”
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The recommendations include: Federal legislation should be considered to clarify that RFRA creates First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights only for individuals and religious institutions and only to the extent that they do not unduly burden civil liberties and civil rights protections against status-based discrimination.
What’s going on is an end run around the 1st Amendment. They’re more or less claiming that any church activity that is not specifically a service, Sunday School, or seminary is a public function subject to government regulation, turning the “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” on its head.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion