Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You the Right to Tell Other People What to Do Author: Robert Boston | Language: English | ISBN:
1616149116 | Format: PDF
Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You the Right to Tell Other People What to Do Description
Review
“As a respected authority on church-state separation and culture-war issues, Rob Boston demonstrates an understanding of religious liberty that is sadly lacking among the God-fearing preachers and politicians of today’s religious Right.
Taking Liberties is both entertaining and enlightening, a valuable resource for those who strive for sanity and reason in public policy.”
—David Niose, author of
Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans"A valuable reminder of the importance of religious freedom in America’s past and present, and an eviscerating critique of attempts by the religious Right to use a false language of ‘religious liberty’ to undermine the very rights they pretend to support.”
—Katherine Stewart, author of
The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children“Robert Boston eloquently makes the case for what religious freedom is and what it is not. It is the right for you to promote and try to convince others that what you believe is correct, but it is not the right to have the government do it for you. He backs up his case with many alarming examples of threats to religious liberty in political, cultural, and educational areas, among others. People of all faiths and of none can read and benefit from this thoughtful, well-documented book that shows why ‘live and let live’ on matters of religion can benefit us all.”
—Herb Silverman, founder and president emeritus of the Secular Coalition for America; author of
Candidate without a Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish About the Author
Robert Boston is the director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the editor of
Church & State magazine. He is the author of
Why the Religious Right Is Wrong about Separation of Church and State, Close Encounters with the Religious Right, and
The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition. He is also a frequent contributor to
The Humanist, and his articles have appeared in
Free Inquiry, The Skeptical Inquirer, Conscience, and other publications.
- Paperback: 198 pages
- Publisher: Prometheus Books (March 4, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1616149116
- ISBN-13: 978-1616149116
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
About a year ago, I read Rob Boston's Why the Religious Right is Wrong about Separation of Church, a primer that brings all of the key Church and State issues together in a concise, digestible package. Boston's just released follow up - Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You the Right to Tell Others What to Do - offers the same clear, well-argued style that characterized his last book.
Now, in an ideal world, the opening line of Taking Liberties - "The Term religious freedom means the right to make decisions about theology for yourself."[emphasis mine] - would be enough to put this particular subject to rest.
But we're not living in an ideal world. Indeed, as it happens, Taking Liberties could hardly have arrived at a more critical juncture given the slate of bigoted proposals that are currently rifling around our country under the banner of `religious freedom.'
To paraphrase Boston loosely for a moment: If you're offended by gay sex, by all means, don't have it. Think pork is ungodly? Skip the ribs or stick with beef. And if you think contraception smacks of deviltry and your partner is on the same page, then either adopt the ascetic life or be fruitful and multiply like bunny rabbits. Religious freedom gives you the right to make all such decisions.
But honestly, if America wants to hold itself up as a beacon of democracy as it's done for two centuries, can we really afford to have our laws determined by medieval inquisitors like Antonin Scalia, a black-robed theocrat who openly admits to believing his particular interpretation of a repeatedly mistranslated collection of pre-scientific tales should trump the United States Constitution?
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