The New World: Religious Freedom = The Ability to Discriminate

At the risk of going somewhere I maybe shouldn't at the moment, I found this story at Pandagon about the firing of a gay employee who had come out to his boss the day before. I know, I know - it's probably just coincidence, right? Right? Sigh....it's too early in the day for this.

What makes it, um, interesting, is that the boss in question (who apparently had a habit of badmouthing gays and lesbians at work) is claiming that he doesn't have to answer questions about the reason he fired the employee because such questions infringe on his "constitutionally protected religious beliefs."

Um, what the fuck? Since when? I get that religious freedom allows a person to believe what they want. However, religious freedom has never meant the right to harm others based on your personal beliefs. Or the right to expect others to live as though they held your beliefs.

Or has it? Maybe that's one of those big gaps in communication between the 'left' and the 'right'. Maybe there are folks who believe that 'religious freedom' really means 'christian state' or 'my religion trumps your well-being'.

Or maybe some people actually expect the world to conform to them.