Individual American citizens have no right to exercise religion under the First Amendment, a U.S. Senator recently said on national television. The day after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex “marriage” nationwide, Sen. Tammy Baldwin told MSNBC that the freedom of religion applies only to “institutions of faith,” not to “businesses and individuals.” Baldwin, the first open lesbian elected to the U.S. Senate and a Democrat (naturally), had been asked whether Christian business owners should be compelled to participate in gay “weddings,” even if if violates their sincerely held religious beliefs. She replied:
Certainly the First Amendment says that in institutions of faith that there is absolute power to, you know, to observe deeply held religious beliefs. But I don’t think it extends far beyond that. We’ve certainly seen the set of arguments play out in issues such as access to contraception. Should it be the individual pharmacist whose religious beliefs guides whether a prescription is filled, or in this context, they’re talking about expanding this far beyond our churches and synagogues to businesses and individuals across this country. I think there are clear limits that have been set in other contexts, and we ought to abide by those in this new context across America.
She made the comments June 27 on Up with Steve Kornacki. They were not widely noticed, because she spoke on MSNBC. The statements are chilling, going further even than Barack Obama’s rhetorical emphasis of the “freedom of worship” – a phrase not contained in the Bill of Rights, which guarantees Americans the “free exercise” of their religion. “Any person of faith knows that religious exercise is about a lot more than freedom of worship,” wrote Ashley Samelson of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “It’s about the right to dress according to one’s religious dictates, to preach openly, to evangelize, to engage in the public square.” Baldwin takes it to another level, saying individuals have no such rights – that they apply only to churches, synagogues, and (especially) mosques. Baldwin is arguing, in essence, that the First Amendment doesn’t extend beyond the church door. The Left has tried to apply the deny Americans their constitutional rights by applying the same criteria to the Second Amendment – that the right to keep and bear arms is granted only to the National Guard, not to individual Americans. That legal argument became the pretext for left-wing politicians to pass laws depriving Americans of their safety in so-called gun-free cities. Jeffrey Toobin gave his opinion on PSB (underwritten with your tax dollars). “The overwhelming consensus” among experts like himself, he said, is “that the Second Amendment gave state militias a right to obtain and bear arms, but it did it not give individuals any rights.” In 2007, the Supreme Court struck down restrictive gun control regulations in Washington, D.C. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the ruling for D.C. v. Heller, “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes.” Secular progressives used one legal sleight-of-hand to take away Americans’ guns. What do you suppose they intend to do to our religious liberty? Watch for yourself:
