ACLU is warning that bills in several states would give religious organizations the leeway to break pretty much any law they like, as long as it’s for Jesus.
Quote:Religious exemptions on steroids: That’s the only way to describe legislation being considered this week by lawmakers in Arizona, South Carolina, and Montana. Under the guise of protecting the ability to worship during emergency disasters, these bills could give religious organizations blanket immunity from all civil and criminal liability — as long as they claim to be exercising their faith while engaging in the unlawful conduct.
For example, passing the bills would mean that:
*Religious organizations in that state could claim immunity from criminal prosecution and civil liability for the sexual abuse or physical harm of children in connection with religious activities or rituals;
*Religious organizations could be shielded from the consequences of violating state nondiscrimination laws that conflict with their religious beliefs;
*Religiously motivated hate groups could avoid prosecution for criminal activities associated with exercising their beliefs; and
*Patients at religious hospitals could be unable to sue for medically negligent or reckless care that was provided based on the hospital’s religious beliefs.
*Religious organizations would even be exempt from more mundane laws. For example, a house of worship that violates fire codes by exceeding capacity limits during religious services could not be fined or otherwise forced to comply with the law.
Exempting religious organizations from nearly every law and shielding them from civil and criminal liability — no matter the harm to others — is the type of religious preference that the U.S. Constitution forbids.
These bills don’t end there, though. Additional provisions would further undermine the separation of church and state and make the government an accomplice to discrimination. For example, the bills could prohibit the state from denying state contracts, licenses, and certifications, as well as tax exemptions based on religious organizations’ exercise of their faith. Under these provisions, the state could be required to give government contracts to groups like the KKK, which claim to be religiously based, or organizations that claim a religious right to discriminate against certain social-services beneficiaries.
The bills also mean that a state could be prevented from recovering public funds used by religious organizations for fraudulent or improper purposes, as long as the funds were used while engaging in religious activities.
While the bills do have language relating to the ability of religious organizations to operate during emergency disasters, tucked into them are provisions that would allow religious organizations to make broad claims of civil and criminal immunity, both during a public emergency and, arguably, in non-emergency contexts as well.
https://www.aclu.org/news/religious-libe...rongdoing/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
