That little dialogue about abortion directed my thought in a direction that they had seldom traveled before. As a result, I suddenly realised that America no longer has Freedom of Religion.
America's ties to religious freedom began in 1681 with the founding of Pennsylvania, "a holy experiment in religious toleration." and was crystallized in the First Amendment to the Constitution. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" It is in modern times, after 300 years of success, that this freedom is being curtailed. I would submit that the spirit of this freedom has already been destroyed.
Allow me to explain with a rather extreme example.
Since we have Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech (and inferentially 'freedom of expression'), and Freedom of Assembly, any otherwise law-abiding citizen (such as myself) is free to create and subsequently observe any crackpot religion of his choosing. I'll make the rash assumption that you agree to the last statement.
So...... as an example, I am herewith forming a crackpot religion.
My new deity is the Great Dismembered Foetus who reigns on high from his Shattered Womb of Heaven.
(Yeah, its tasteless, but I do have a point coming....)
As a minor tenet of my new religion, practitioning females will willingly have abortions performed, by the "Dilation and Extraction" method. Yes, this religion involves partial birth abortions.
You can already, without my assistance, detect a problem with my new religion.
Right from the inception of my new Holy Cause, my religion, and its practices are subject to persecution. Despite the "freedom" that I am alleged to enjoy.
"Karl, you dumbass, you are intentionally using an extreme example in an effort to distort the facts!"
Extreme, yes M'lud, guilty as charged. I have not, however, distorted anything.
[Speaking of distortions, you might note on that last link, that the D&X method accounts for a mere 0.85% of all Ohio abortions in 1999. Isn't it odd that prevention of so rare a practice requires an overt act of Congress?]
The concepts that "all life is sacred" and "abortion is bad", or even "evil", are borne of religious convictions and not requirements of civil law. As you can see in my extreme example, the insertion of religious views into the legal code is only to the detriment of Religious Freedom.
And infringes upon my Constitutional right to worship the Great Dismembered Foetus.
