My, how insecure we have become, notwithstanding all our liberty and diversity.
Indiana passed a version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the righteous indignation industry is in overdrive. Whatever happened to “live and let live”? The ability to go about your business and let others attend to theirs?
The unspoken truth here is that Americans interact every day — including doing business — with people with whom we may not only disagree but whose lifestyles, behaviors or choices we may find personally offensive. Particularly when those choices involve sexual behavior. Even if they’re legal.
Most of those interactions do not force us to “condone” or “participate” in the behavior itself, or express any opinion about it. If I am a Christian grocer opposed to abortion, for example, does selling groceries to someone who has had one violate my religious beliefs? Of course not.
There is a point, however, at which one is being asked to condone or participate in behavior or choices with which one profoundly disagrees. And our laws are determinedly pushing in that direction. We have moved from calls for the elimination of laws that forbid private conduct to calls for laws that mandate public expressions of approval of private conduct. The evident motivation behind these laws is not the advancement of liberty, per se, but the elimination of widely held — often (though not exclusively) religiously based — views about sexual behavior.
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