WASHINGTON – In response to today’s Supreme Court arguments in Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods cases, Interfaith Alliance president, Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, expressed hope for a court ruling for what he considers “the more traditional” view of religious liberty, saying:
“Unfortunately, some people in the faith community have taken a shortsighted approach to religious freedom over the last few years in an attempt to turn the first amendment into a free pass to opt-out from any public policy with which they do not agree. This misguided approach has been used as a battering ram against marriage equality, tax law and – in this case – the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.”
“Hopefully, the Court will rule for what I consider the more traditional, and dare I say more conservative, view of religious liberty. That decision could prompt a return to a saner debate on these issues. The First Amendment should be understood as it always has been: a guaranteed protection for the rights of religious minorities and unshakable assurance that one’s religion does not define one’s relationship to the government. Gone, I pray, would be attempts to use religion to create a private right to discriminate or the ability to opt out of laws that one finds unsavory. The age of so-called ‘conscience clauses’ and the over-broad religious exemption would finally begin to wane.”