Religious liberty is now and always has been under attack. By the far the most dangerous foe of religious liberty over the centuries has been religious people, who are so convinced that they know the truth, that other methods of worship, other manners of belief, are considered dangerous and must therefore be either suppressed or eliminated altogether. We are very fortunate here in the United States to have a clear wall of separation between the power of the state and the freedom to exercise religion. This wall has served us all very well since the founding of our nation and will continue to do so.
People who believe that having to serve LGBTs in a restaurant they own or having the state recognize as valid the marriages such folk contract is somehow a violation of their own religious freedom are simply mistaken. I, for example, think it positively un-Christian, even perhaps in my more extreme moods, anti-Christian, to spend upwards of 700 billion dollars each year on the “defense” department. I think it is immoral that we are willing collectively to cut food stamps and at the same time maintain huge subsidies for agribusiness. These are violations of my basic Christian principles and values. They are not, however, a violation of my religious freedom. That freedom remains intact regardless of the policies to which I object as a Christian. Conservative, pentecostal, evangelical Christians undoubtedly object, and in fairly large numbers, to the trends in society which are tending toward more freedom of expression for different groups of people, and some of them consider this to be an undermining of the values they believe this country embodies. I understand that concern, and all I can say to you who are experiencing it is “Welcome to my world.” I have been living in this neighborhood my entire life.
Amen brother!