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Did you know that in a free society people have only a “qualified” right to their religion and that if a person in observing his faith engages in behavior or expresses a belief that is in conflict with the State, that that person has now forfeited his legal protection and his rights can be withheld?
Sound shocking?
Well, just this past week a High Court in the United Kingdom ruled that “religious belief…can never of itself immunize the believer from the reach of the secular law” and that the "manifestation" of religion is subject to "qualifications” and cannot always be defended, especially when said religious belief results in aberrant views and behaviors.
Okay, what was the religious behavior that led to this ruling? What was the offense in question? It must have been something truly barbaric.
Well, here it is: Eunice and Owen Johns, two foster parents in England, dared to do a very bad and “religious” thing. They dared to teach their foster kids that if you want to stay physically, socially, and morally healthy, that you are better to remain a virgin until married and that the best and most healthy model for a marriage is a faithful union between a man and a woman.
How outrageous! This has to be akin to a belief in child sacrifice or the execution of reluctant converts! Such “religious” lunacy just has to be stopped!
Sound absurd?
Well, before you answer, just think of the rationale our President and Attorney General just used in declaring they will no longer enforce DOMA. Think of the ruling that Judge Vaughn Walker issued in overruling Prop 8 in California.
Then do one last thing: Ask yourself how free you feel to be religious in this Brave New World.