William McKenzie: Religious freedom issues are tricky

By William McKenzie

Abortion and same-sex marriage will get ample airtime during this fall’s campaign. But add to the social agenda the notion that religious freedom is under attack.

Conservative Catholics and evangelicals are driving the topic, which Rick Santorum and Rick Perry pressed during the primaries with their suggestion that the Obama administration has declared war on religion.

Most Republicans agree. Sixty percent of Republicans think religious freedoms are in jeopardy, according to a March poll by the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service.

As is often true in cultural debates, we have a red-blue divide. The poll found 69 percent of Democrats don’t consider religious liberties under attack.

Both sides have a point — and each is missing something important....

...they too often confuse religious freedom with religious privilege. Specifically, some seem to want an advantage for their faith, which leads them to complain when they feel that privilege is not being upheld.

Confusing freedom and privilege could explain why so many evangelicals believe religious freedoms are threatened. In that March survey, 61 percent of them said such liberties were in jeopardy. They complained about God being taken out of public life and a general hostility toward Christianity.

Todd Starnes of Fox News Radio exemplified this view in a book complaining that Obama has declared war on Christianity. You also see some conservative Christians seeking an advantage when they argue for putting the Ten Commandments in courthouses, an action that ignores the views of others.

William Lawrence, dean of SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, recently put a fine point on the freedom/privilege distinction. Writing on this newspaper’s Texas Faith blog, he noted:

“Crusades have been launched in support of a child who wanted to distribute candy canes in the Christmas season and a teenaged high school valedictorian who wanted to offer a prayer rather than a speech. The crusades raise attention and money on the pretext that the freedom of religion in America is under attack.

“Actually, what these crusaders have recognized — but will not admit — is that religious privilege is under attack. The Constitution of the United States protects religious freedom, but it also prohibits religious privilege.”...