Alan Jonson, a former Army chaplain, wrote a letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune asking if the recent nationwide uproar over Indiana’s discrimination law was “the opening salvo of a ‘war on religion’ or at least religion that does not genuflect to secular orthodoxy above all else.”
In his view states like Indiana are “struggling to accommodate believers in the face of the secular steamroller.”
Here’s my question: “If a ‘war on religion’ has been launched, what exactly does it look like? What is the ‘secular steamroller’ that is apparently headed straight for believers?”
Churches being shut down by the government? Ministers being carted off to jail for preaching against gay marriage? “Believers” being rounded up and put in concentration camps because they oppose abortion? Christian students being expelled from school for praying? Store owners being fined for playing Christmas Carols? Store clerks being fired for wishing someone a Merry Christmas?
As absurd as those questions may be, they are no more so than some Christians insisting there is a “war on religion” without any credible evidence to support it.
More likely is the fact that when the free exercise of religion clashes with the Constitution, and the Constitution wins as it must, people like the chaplain see that as a “war on religion.”
The truth is, court decisions have not limited anyone’s free exercise of religion.
They have only prevented religion being sanctioned by the state or individuals and groups imposing their religious beliefs on others.
So while the courts have said schools cannot hold formal prayer services, student groups can gather for prayer.
While the courts have said gays and lesbians have the civil right to marriage as all other citizens do, no minister or church is compelled to perform their wedding, nor are heterosexual couples prevented from taking their vows.
While the courts have said a woman has the right to decide for herself about an abortion, “believers” still have the freedom to reject abortion for themselves.
While the courts have said Nativity scenes should not be placed on public property such as a courthouse, Christians are free to display the Nativity on their own property and that of their churches.
Religious freedom in America is an absolute that will never be abridged as long as we have the Constitution we now have.
In short, the “struggle” Chaplain Johnson thinks states are having has nothing to do with a “secular steamroller.”
Instead, it has to do with states run by conservatives wanting to accommodate freedom of religion as if the Constitution that protects that freedom does not also include the separation of church and state.
That’s the real issue here.
Which is why I would say that any war on religion is about as real as the war on Christmas created by Fix News.
So Christians need not worry about losing their freedom of religion. It’s never going to happen.
But neither is the effort by some Christians to turn American democracy into a theocracy.
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