We have seen numerous instances of the religious right's campaign of desperation in the face of the growing acceptance for LGBT rights. Their latest ploy is an effort to establish a first amendment related right to discriminate against anything that is in conflict with their religious beliefs. We have a dramatic example of a Houston city council member in a face off with a right wing pastor demonstrating that such a precedent could easily go beyond the issue of LGBT rights.
Houston Pastor Says Religious Freedom Means the Right to Discriminate Against Gays, Jews
Kudos to Houston City Council Member Ellen Cohen for making clear what opponents of the proposed Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (ERO) are really saying when they argue for the religious freedom to discriminate against LGBT people. The ERO would bar discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, race, sex, military status and a number of other protected characteristics. Houston is the last major city in Texas without such a comprehensive civil rights ordinance.
Religious-right activists have focused almost exclusively on the ordinance’s protections for LGBT people. They argue that business owners and others have the right, because of their religious beliefs, to discriminate against someone who is gay or transgender. (Many mainstream faith leaders, we should note, have strongly supported passage of the measure.)
So check out the short exchange in the video clip above between Cohen and Becky Riggle, a pastor at Houston’s Grace Community Church. Riggle was testifying against the ordinance, arguing that it violates the religious freedom of business owners and others in Houston who think LGBT people are sinful. If a business owner has the right to refuse service to LGBT people because the owner’s religious beliefs are offended, Cohen asks, then should business owners also be able to refuse service to other people — like, say, Jews — for the same reason?
Riggle, clearly realizing she’s trapped by her own argument, proceeds to trip all over her tongue in trying to respond. She ultimately suggests that yes, religious freedom would allow her to discriminate against Jews. But she insists “that’s not the issue” in the case of the Houston ERO.
Here's the video of the exchange.
Religious beliefs are whatever people say they believe. There is no way require that they have to be connected to a large religious organization. The very nature of the first amendment is to assure that people with minority religious views have freedom to engage in religious practices. However, it has never been construed to include the right to impose those beliefs and practices on others.