Excursus: Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians Reported in Mayor US Newspaper
After talking about limitations to freedom of religion elsewhere, Thomas S. Kidd, a senior fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, goes on to say in „USA Today“:
„But Christians in the U.S. take their lumps, too, when it comes to religious freedom. These range from the frivolous — such as a recent (and unsuccessful) Freedom from Religion Foundation lawsuit to ban Texas Gov. Rick Perry from holding "The Response," his prayer rally in Houston — to real judicial infringements. Earlier this month, for instance, a federal appeals court approved San Diego State University's policy of denying a Christian sorority and fraternity official campus benefits simply because the groups restricted membership to Christians. And in October, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in what might become the most significant religious liberty case in decades, Hosanna-Tabor Church v. EEOC, which will, disconcertingly, consider whether a religious school has the right to fire a teacher who contradicts official church teachings. Should the court rule against Hosanna-Tabor, it could indicate that American courts will intrude more and more upon the internal affairs of religious organizations, dictating that the right to free exercise must bow before judges' and bureaucrats' current conceptions of legal equity. Placing religious groups under special legal disadvantages, and forbidding them from operating according to their own beliefs, is certainly not what the Founders had in mind when they banned an "establishment of religion" in the First Amendment. Let's hope that, instead, America will renew its commitment to the genius of the First Amendment's religion clauses. The government should never promote the interests of any one faith — including secularism — but should protect the free exercise of religion for all.“ Source and link to full article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-08-21-religion-freedom-persecution_n.htm