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The Nation's Pulse
Religion Under Harassment
A new report surveys the the ever growing hostility toward religious belief in America.
The U.S. remains a hospitable home for religious believers. Whatever their problems, American Christians are not persecuted, in contrast to many people of faiths overseas, who often are beaten, imprisoned, and murdered for their faith. Nevertheless, a new report from the Liberty Institute catalogs rising hostility toward religious believers in recent years.
In its report, “The Survey of Religious Hostility in America,” the Institute raises an important warning: “Our first freedom is facing a relentless onslaught from well-funded and aggressive groups and individuals who are using the courts, Congress, and the vast federal bureaucracy to suppress and limit religious freedom. This radicalized minority is driven by an anti-religious ideology that is turning the First Amendment upside down.”
This may overstate the danger, since the First Amendment remains a legal bulwark and most Americans remain friendly to religion. However, those antagonistic to religion increasingly are turning to government. Many supported the Obama administration mandate forcing faith organizations to cover contraception. Similar attitudes may animate the shift in administration rhetoric from freedom of religion to freedom of worship. This change, warned the organization, “threatens to make true religious liberty vulnerable, conditional, and limited” by suggesting that only “worship within the four walls of your home, church, or synagogue, but when you enter the public square the message is, ‘leave your religion at home.’”
The Institute’s list is long and impressive, though mixed. Hostility obviously exists. However, not all hostility warrants legal or political action. Just as people of faith have a right to worship, those without faith have a right not to do so, and even to act out their disagreements toward believers. Tolerance toward all would encourage social peace, but cannot be forced through coercion.
Indeed, Jesus warned his followers that they would face opposition: “In this world you will have trouble.” (John 16:33) They should not seek state power to minimize private hostility but instead should respond to criticism with charity. Believers should, however, fight back strongly when the state acts against them.
Many cases described by the Institute involve restrictions on believers practicing their faith. For instance, Ohio State prisoners were forced to sue to win accommodation with their religious faith. Two men successfully sued to evangelize without a permit at a festival in Fairborn, Michigan. A counselor at the federal Centers for Disease Control was fired for refusing to engage in relationship counseling for gay couples. A Christian group went to court to overturn Dearborn, Michigan’s ban on distributing religious tracts near an Arab festival. The same city sought to force ministers to sign away their constitutional rights in return for receiving permission to preach in public areas of the city.
Mount Sinai Hospital threatened to fire a nurse for refusing to participate in a late-term abortion. Apartment managers won a settlement after being fired for displaying religious artwork in the office. Vermont unsuccessfully sought to bar residents from creating vanity license plates with Bible verses. An evangelist successfully sued the U.S. Park Service when it attempted to stop him from passing out literature. The city of Ithaca, New York threatened to arrest a minister for preaching loudly in public. Jacksonville, Florida restricted an evangelist who sought to preach on a public sidewalk. The city of San Antonio arrested two men for evangelizing on public sidewalks. Hewlett-Packard fired an employee who hung anti-homosexual scriptures in his cubicle in response to corporate posters depicting a gay employee.
Federal courts banned a Catholic mass as part of “A Touch of Italy” festival in the village of Crestwood, Illinois. The Washington State Board of Pharmacy issued a rule, overturned in court, requiring pharmacists to dispense abortifacients. Wisconsin fined a pharmacist for refusing to provide oral contraceptives. A minister went to federal court to win the right to preach at a public festival in Duluth, Minnesota. Chicago arrested people for proselytizing at a Catholic festival only to lose in federal court. A public transportation system banned Christian advertising, and also lost in court.
Settled were cases involving a transportation agency which fired a bus driver for refusing to drive a woman to Planned Parenthood, a Christian professor denied the position of Observatory Director by the University of Kentucky because of his faith, and two workers fired by the University of Texas (Arlington) for privately praying for a co-worker after hours. The so-called New Mexico Human Rights Commission fined a Christian-owned photography company for refusing to handle a same-sex marriage.
The Department of the Interior threatened to review all of the outgoing emails of an employee who requested not to receive departmental emails on the month-long celebration of “gay and lesbian pride.” Jacksonville, Florida police arrested a man for evangelizing on public property. The City of Cumming, Georgia arrested a man for distributing religious tracts on public sidewalk without a permit. A woman filed suit against a Texas school district in order to hand out religious materials outside a high school. The University of Wisconsin ordered a resident assistant not to lead a Bible study in his dorm.
In Batch Springs, Texas, the senior citizens’ center told visitors to stop praying before meals and singing religious songs. An agnostic family sued the city of San Diego for leasing parkland to the Boy Scouts. Illinois pharmacists successfully overturned a state rule requiring them to fill contraception prescriptions. A mall in Westfield, California banned a man from sharing the Gospel. The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization sued a Christian-owned business for refusing to make a gay pride t-shirt. The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a legal complaint against a florist who refused to deliver flowers to the organization after it sued to remove a school prayer banner.
A Jew went to court to force the Colorado Department of Corrections to accommodate his keeping of the Sabbath. Muslim police officers sued to win the right to grow beards. A Chabad rabbi sued the army to allow him to keep his beard.
Lambda Legal sued a Hawaiian Bed and Breakfast for refusing to rent to a Lesbian couple. Cisco fired an employee who expressed his opposition to same-sex marriage outside of work. Cargill Food fired an employee for similar reasons. A local Chamber of Commerce fired an employee for wearing a Ten Commandments lapel pin. Berkeley County, South Carolina banned religious signs. Kentucky and Tennessee rejected religious vanity license plates.
The Federal Reserve forced a private bank to eliminate a Christmas message from its website, though later reversed course under pressure. The Janesville, Wisconsin police department barred an officer from posting an announcement of a prayer group, but then relented under legal pressure. A Boys & Girls Club barred an eight-year-old from singing Kum Ba Yah in a talent show because of the words “Oh, Lord.” A city recreation facility in Northglenn, Colorado banned a swim coach for sharing his faith.
In many of these cases, the government was out of line attempting to limit private religious activities. In others private companies were, or should have been, within their legal rights in ordering employees to keep their religious beliefs off-premises. However, in both cases hostility toward religion was evident. A live and let live attitude — which should equally extend to non-believers, of course — would be a far better policy in most of these cases.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author and editor of several books, including The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington (Transaction).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
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Darin| 9.25.12 @ 6:38AM
Seeing what's happening to America is further evidence we are nearing the End Times. The world will turn its back on God. Not all individuals will do so, but nations and their governments will. America is quickly going down this path, and I'd argue that our government has already turned away from God at least privately.
spike59| 9.25.12 @ 6:42AM
"I'd argue that our government has already turned away from God at least privately."
----------------------------------------------------
All the more reason to reject the 'we belong to the government' nonsense the Left has been spewing
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 9.25.12 @ 9:39PM
Agape love is virtually nonexistent; people only care about their own people.
Appleby| 9.25.12 @ 7:00AM
This is the time to get your spiritual house in order, in whatever way seems best to you -- and if you don't know how, ask someone whom you know. It's not tough to do; God is always available for your prayers and straightforward conversation -- you don't need to be elaborate and flowery. Just talk to Him like folks. As that doomed Nazi said to Indiana Jones, "It's time to ask yourself what you believe." And don't be cute about it. Speak up. Because you never know who may need a lifeline. Fight back against anyone who tries to shut you up or persuade you that just a pinch of incense on the emperor's altar is "no big deal". Even here in Kanukistan things are beginning to slowly turn to God. Our Catholic church has finally caved to pressure from the congregation and is holding Bible study for adults!
Appleby| 9.25.12 @ 7:00AM
This is the time to get your spiritual house in order, in whatever way seems best to you -- and if you don't know how, ask someone whom you know. It's not tough to do; God is always available for your prayers and straightforward conversation -- you don't need to be elaborate and flowery. Just talk to Him like folks. As that doomed Nazi said to Indiana Jones, "It's time to ask yourself what you believe." And don't be cute about it. Speak up. Because you never know who may need a lifeline. Fight back against anyone who tries to shut you up or persuade you that just a pinch of incense on the emperor's altar is "no big deal". Even here in Kanukistan things are beginning to slowly turn to God. Our Catholic church has finally caved to pressure from the congregation and is holding Bible study for adults!
Bill8472| 9.26.12 @ 12:22PM
Every time is the time to get your spiritual house in order.
Intelligent Design| 9.25.12 @ 7:35AM
Obama and his Demo-Socialists are attacking the First Amendment, and every religion except the one that isn't: Islam. They like and support Islam because it's a 7th century totalitarian political ideology the essence of which is forced state "religion", not unlike Nazism and Communism. The Demo-Socialists like the collectivist core of Islam, which takes away individual rights in favor of total state control. The Muslim Brotherhood is currently active in the U.S. trying to subvert the Constitution via campus groups, mosques, and fake charities, with help from Obama his fellow Demo-Socialists.
Muslims would do well to leave the 7th century and join the 21st by committing apostasy, but they will have to be brave since Islam's penalty for apostasy is death. What true religions kill you for "resigning"? As the Ayatollah Khomeini said, "Islam is politics or it is nothing."
Jack in Wi| 9.25.12 @ 7:55AM
This is a terrific essay. Doug Bandow should be here on a full time basis. He is a wonderful writer and reporter.
Joellen| 9.25.12 @ 8:00AM
Well said Appleby, pray for our Priest here in America. They and the many of the Nuns have fallen into the Liberal/Progessive ideology. In fact, for years I have told/asked fellow Catholics NOT TO GIVE to the annual Bishops Appeals. As many of you know, they give/gave to ACORN; Planned Parenthood, etc. Now I do like I do with the Republican Party, I pick & choose myself where my money is going. Anyways - PRAY, Sept 28th, starts the prayer/fast before the election.
TLP| 9.25.12 @ 8:57AM
The Left doesn't like GOD?
No way! When did that happen?
Why would anyone believe that a Group who believes that THEY KNOW BEST, would share their Pedestal with something that requires FAITH?
I believe that one of Their Saints - Saint Stalin - once wondered aloud, about the Numbers of Soldiers, Tanks, and Artillery in the Vatican's Arsenal.
Why would any people who see Nothing Wrong with Murdering their own Unborn Child, or having some Butcher, pull their Baby out until just its head is inside, and then Gutting it open like a Fish, have any interest in GOD?
GOD is hard. GOD has Rules, and Punishments for breaking those Rules.
He has Commandments, which the Left fights, tooth and nail, to keep them away from the Public Square, Out of Sight, and Out of Mind.
I believe that the old Loon from Canada, is right.
I think that Good People are coming back to GOD. Coming back to Church. And, for good reason.
Every Major City resembles Soddom and Gomorrah, these days, as opposed to: A shining City on a hill.
Everyone in this Administration is GODLESS.
They might go to Church, like The Fräulein of Death - Kathleen Sebelious. But, those are NOT Churches. They are the Houses of the False Prophet. The Beast. President Bojangles, raised in the Unholy Muslim Schools and Mosques of Murder World, in Indonesia.
Have Faith.
Come November, GOD Willing, we take Black Jesus down from his Cross, and throw him into The Pit.
Where he belongs.
Nancy in NC| 9.25.12 @ 8:29AM
Read the book "The Harbinger". We will pay for our evil ways.
TLP| 9.25.12 @ 6:43PM
Read the Book "Revelation".
THEY will pay for their Evil Ways.
Alex Feltham | 9.25.12 @ 9:08AM
There is, of course, one big exception to religions getting harassed.
On that subject there was a great interview between CNN’s Erin Burnett and Pamela Gellar available here:
http://john-moloney.blogspot.com/
where Erin gives a hilarious definition of Jihad, and means it.
Enjoy
Bill8472| 9.25.12 @ 9:14AM
We read about the experiences of Lot and his family and the sodomites of Sodom, who went so far as to discuss publicly whether or not they were going to sodomize God's angel when he visited Lot, and then we talk about the end times because there's harassment of religious people in the U.S.?
People, we weren't in the end days when the Separatists were hounded so badly they felt they had to leave England for Holland, then the New World. We're certainly not in the end days now. So stop it already. It's just a bad time, that's all.
Skippy| 9.25.12 @ 3:24PM
Very good.
I'm a christian, but all this endtimes baloney puts me in mind of the Millerites 2 centuries ago.
They were wrong too.
Live your life as though it all ends tomm., and maybe love will be what you decide to do.
Von Mises Jr| 9.25.12 @ 9:19AM
Totalitarians cannot succeed when the people follow God unless that religion is a statist tyranny such as Islam. Here are some interesting words by Ludwig Von Mises regarding God and statism:
“The state is a human institution, not a superhuman being. He who says “state” means coercion and compulsion. He who says: There should be a law concerning this matter, means: The armed men of the government should force people to do what they do not want to do, or not to do what they like. He who says: This law should be better enforced, means: the police should force people to obey this law. He who says: The state is God, deified arms and prisons. The worship of the state is the worship of force.”
Who Knows?| 9.25.12 @ 11:37AM
The thing to take away from this litany of “assaults” on religion in America, circa 2012, is encapsulated in one word---
SUE.
In place of the actual wars between religions, enlightened Americas, as Rush Limbaugh used to say, have WAY too much free time, and so they fight in court, using WORDS.
The fruit of separation is war.
It’s just the way it is.
Poor me! My religion is being dissed!
Muslims behead. Others sue.
And, the world wags on.
Wars rage on.
There’s nothing to do about it. Your rights end at the tip of my nose.
One might note that might makes right, or is that left, or up, or down, or under, or over, or permeating, or nowhere…
First transcend the mind, not the body. Inwardness is flight from love. Be the Whole Body, than which there is no other.
Intuition IS the Absolute. This is Absolutely True.
Ryan| 9.25.12 @ 11:41AM
Intuition is the absolute? What does that even mean?
How can I trust my intuition if I have sinned so many times?
Who Knows?| 9.25.12 @ 2:08PM
The Intuition that transcends separation, not "my" intuition, is the Absolute.
Sinning is to miss the mark, of there being Only God.
Ryan| 9.26.12 @ 3:19PM
That...doesn't mean anything.
Clara| 9.25.12 @ 1:46PM
I was called a child abuser by a social worker after telling her that I was going to teach my children to value life and that abortion is wrong. It's only a matter of time before they come for our children.
Skippy| 9.25.12 @ 3:26PM
I hope you laughed in her face, and have weapons to protect your kids from the tender mercies of Big Govt.
darcy| 9.26.12 @ 12:08AM
Best not to expose yourself to the tyrants in the social services; they act like they want to help when what they're doing is gathering evidence with which to prosecute you. Never, ever, deal with them personally. Get a lawyer, even if you can't afford one, to do the talking for you -- if you have the misfortune to fall within their radar.
cicero| 9.25.12 @ 3:58PM
Change will only come when those who value their religious faith take a stand. Just once, I would like to see a Catholic bishop tell a politition who speaks out in favor of abortion on demand that they are not welcome to receive the sacrements. Just once, I would like to see the Christian and Jewish communities refuse to back a politition who openly disrespects their faith and customs. Until that happens, it is just so much bleating into the wind. And the end result will be the triumph of the secular. The secular will not stand up to radical Islam (see Europe), resulting in world tragedy.
mike 3/505| 9.25.12 @ 9:10PM
Seriously...when was the last time Pelosi , an allegedly practicing Catholic, was denied communion for failing to repent her evil support of murder.