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Religious Freedom is not a Valid Excuse for Hatred

Dictionary.com defines “Freedom of Religion” as

“The right to choose a religion (or no religion) without interference by the government.”

Now, that is a simple answer, and when this freedom is guaranteed in the bill of rights and later legislation the wording is more nuanced, but they all boil down to the definition of the above. Religious freedom means that everyone should be able to practice any religion that they choose without fear of persecution. This is an extremely necessary and just freedom that everyone in the world should be entitled to- but some people take this freedom too far.

Homophobes love to use the term “Religious freedom” to defend their hatred. From Trump’s running mate Mike Pence pledging to sign a bill allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people, or for that matter anyone they choose, on the grounds of religious freedom, to Kim Davis refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple because of her religion.

This is not religious freedom, this is discrimination, plain and simple. It is ridiculous to claim that your rights allow you to infringe on the rights of others, that is not what freedom is.

Your religious freedom does not afford you the right to ruthlessly hate those who you deem “immoral” or ‘ungodly”. Most every religion stresses love as one of the core tenets of its doctrine, so not only is this irrational hatred not a protected right, it also most likely goes against your religion. The notion that you have a right to despise an entire subset of people, and to loudly make this hatred known on the grounds of “religious freedom” is laughable at best and deluded at worst.

Your religious freedom does not entitle you to deny service to gay people, nor does it actually accomplish anything. When you tell a gay couple that they aren’t welcome in your restaurant, eyes narrowed and self-righteousness blazing, you are not actually changing anything. Not being able to eat in a restaurant isn’t going to make a gay couple rethink their entire sexuality nor will it convince anyone that homophobia is the right answer. All it does is reaffirm those who already hate and disgust those who don’t.

And your religious freedom certainly does not allow you to hurt or even kill those who conflict with your religion. This is a more extreme occurrence, but it has happened and is a large problem, especially for the LGBTQ community. Scott Lively, an American pastor worked with the Ugandan government to attempt to introduce a law that would call for the death penalty for LGBTQ people, commonly called the “Kill the Gays Bill“.  Another Christian pastor named Kevin Swanson campaigned with Ted Cruz and at a conference with the former candidate, said that homosexuals were “worthy of death“.

Religion is a personal belief, a choice, and a way of living. Everyone has the right to believe in whichever religion they want, and conduct themselves according to its doctrines- but they do not have the right discriminate against others because of it. Using your “Freedom of religion” to infringe on someone else’s freedom to be themselves, or even their freedom to live is blatantly unjustified, and ungodly at that.

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