FREEDOM OF RELIGION

We are all better off since freedom of religion laws were enacted, particularly we atheists. But I never thought that law gave religions the right to modify our secular laws to suit, and particularly to regain the right to force those of dissimilar opinion to live according their preferred dictates.
The doctor who refused contraceptives to a woman is a case in point. Yes, the doctor has the right to state her personal beliefs on this matter but to refuse to give the pills to someone who does not agree with her? On what grounds does her opinion trump that of her patient? Does being a member of a religion give her special status?

And as for Hobby Lobby, it seems absurd to me that a profit making company can choose to represent all it’s employee’s beliefs as if these employees had, in fact, no right to freedom of religion as individuals, while claiming that their business is being discriminated against by a secular law that focuses on a medical insurance program that one would assume is not their business. The only way they can be fined is if they take a holier than thou attitude that infers they have the right to force their employees to pay for their own contraceptives irrespective of that employee’s personal opinion. I contend that the right to freedom of religion does not give you the right to ignore secular law

Step by step, increment by increment, religion is gaining back its former power over the individual and if we do not stem this drive, we could end up with the same kind of theocracy that can only see humans as sinners, deserving of punishment.
Cheers
Andy Mulcahy