Brief Notes
Fraggle Rocker: Pride. Do you want to be the president on whose watch the United States of America finally fails? (There are also economic considerations; the whole exercise of buying the Louisiana Territory began with an attempt to secure New Orleans for American shipping.)
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PJdude, Spidergoat: Mayhaps, but the common barb overlooks a problem of rhetorical form.
(1) Christian conscience: This isn't Christianity, regardless of what they try to call it.
(2) Religious freedom: These people still have the right to assert their religious freedom.
(3) Religious freedom: So do people who aren't Christians. Including homosexuals, atheists, and other people the courts have chosen for generations to wilfully disrespect in deference to this cruel, fake Christianity.
It's not that I disagree with your common critique, but, rather, it seems like a shiny thing to play with while issues of consequence continue to move around us. If people's focus was more on the issue instead of the self-proclaimed "Christians"?
That is to say, yeah, I get exactly what you mean. But isn't this a problem in the legal question? Religious freedom? For what religion? Well, sure, it's "theirs", but neither is it what they call it. The only reason they call it "Christianity" is because they want Christians to vote with them. Kind of like how everybody imagines themselves the good guys.
Religious freedom is one thing, but there is the consideration that it is usually measured against Christian privilege; if your religious freedom denigrates American Christian privilege, it is less likely to be considered religious freedom.
The reality is that in my life, it cannot be said that God instructs me to prohibit, shun, or hate homosexuals and homosexuality. And, yet, where is your or my religious freedom in all this? It's not, because we're not Christians.
And, sure, there still exists the question of why equality must necessarily mean Christian supremacy, but I think it is also important to call out the fraud. This isn't Christianity. It's hatred, trying to ride the coattails of Christianity to traditional privilege.
Honestly, I think it would be highly appropriate at some point for a judge to tell Hobby Lobby, or one of these other allegedly Christian groups complaining about this, that, or the other, that the Court will be happy to consider the rights of Christians in the context of religious freedom, just as soon as an actual Christian files the complaint.
