Friday, November 15, 2013

Rev. Susan Russell Says to Mention Religious Liberty Is Threatened Is A Sin

I just read with some " good grief feeling " this column by Rev. Susan Russell at the Huff Post on Religious liberty. Her conclusion is that anyone that disagrees with her that religious liberty is under threat or even mentions it is a violator of the Ten Commandments . See What Religious Liberty Is... and Isn't

That is pretty heavy stuff isn't it. . I mean I am a violator of the ninth commandment if  I think not every thing is just bliss about religion matters under the First Amendment.

My  piece of advice is no matter what your viewpoint  one should be vocal and testy about your rights as to religious liberty  even if clergy call you a " liar "in an attempt to shut you up.

Every day there are some serious threats to freedom of  the speech and association. ( see our college campuses )

Every day there are in my view some pretty serious questions to our rights under the fourth amendment as to various issues that are at stake. Anyone that would say you are " Liar " if you had reservations about our liberty as to search and seizures and right to be left alone by the police would be laughed out of the room by the legal academy.

Heck even our rights under the confrontation clause have been at issue.

The same goes for the various rights as to religious liberty which even any cursory reviews of the law reviews would show. 

In the end it would be quite amazing if out of all our rights that require constant attention religious liberty is not one.

Now this particular clergy person is quite invested in some political positions that involve LGBT rights and what she would phrase as reproductive justice. However even secular courts that have even sided with some her  positions  realize there is a trade off with some serious consequences.

Regardless don't let a clergy person tell you that you sin if think your religious liberty rights are at risk and even to question it is SIN.



2 comments:

Undergroundpewster said...

As a lesbian partnered Episcopal priest, I am pretty sure that she falls into the group who consider certain sins to be blessings. Therefore, if your sin is that you feel that your religious liberties are at risk, just do as she as done and consider it a blessing.

James H said...

That I expect is very much the case