seems most of the freedom of religion issues are of conservatives forced to submit their religious freedom to those who do jot share that faith,
Yes, I get that. I am familiar with RFRA, which provides for religious exemptions to conscientious objectors. Hobby Lobby. I'm on board with that. We have freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. The state cannot make us do anything that offends those. I was not speaking to that:
who seem to think that their own religious freedom is compromised when other people are not forced to submit to the former's religious proscriptions
The state not requiring anyone to do what offends his own conscience, however, is not the same as the state prohibiting others from doing what offends someone's conscience but not the conscience of the one doing it.
Gay marriage is the simplest and most obvious example of that. If gay marriage offends your conscience/religion, you (I don't mean you personally) don't need a law to stop you from doing it. You know it as wrong. Seeking by law to stop gay marriage, then, affects not you but only those others who have no such proscriptions to honor. It violates their freedom without affecting your religious freedom in any way. It may offend your sensibilities but not your freedom. Stopping social conservatives from imposing their religious proscriptions on others does not threaten their religious freedom but, rather, stops them from denying freedom to others. |
