Part 2 - What does freedom of religion mean to you?

[fantome profane]

First I went through the list and I checked off almost all of them, but then I thought some more about it and unchecked all but a few. There are a number of things on the list that I agree with, that I think are good public policy, things that I think we should be doing, but that is not the same thing as saying it is a “right”.

Of course people have a right to carry or wear religious items, “obligatory” or not. One exception I would make is the Kirpan (a ceremonial dagger carried by Sikhs). Even in that case I think it should, but I don’t think carrying a weapon is a right. (Obviously I am not an American.)

Here in Canada, there's been a fair bit of debate over this issue. In most parts of the country, Catholic schools (and no other religious schools) receive taxpayer funding. In the debate over what to do about this issue, one thing I've heard argued a couple of times from religious school advocates is that if members of all religions don't have a religious alternative to the secular public school system, similarly funded by the state, then their religious freedom is being violated. IOW, they argue that the "make all the public schools secular" option is a violation of their rights.

I think that there is a point to the argument that funding of one kind of religious school amounts to government endorsement of that religion over all others. Personally I think the proper solution is not to fund any religious schools.

Same here.

I'm genuinely surprised at how few votes the religious accommodation options got, especially accommodation for guests & customers of a business.

Those were some of the ones I checked, and then reconsidered. I think reasonable accommodation is a good idea, I support it. But it is not a right. The only exception to this is when dealing with the government, but only because many of our interactions with the government are mandatory.