Religious Freedom, Meet Secularism: Your Best Ally

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-krattenmaker/religion-secularism-gay-marriage_b_2944472.html

Tom Krattenmaker
Author, 'The Evangelicals You Don't Know'

Religious Freedom, Meet Secularism: Your Best Ally
Posted: 03/28/2013 11:29 am

In what could go down as one of its most notable reckonings of the era, the Supreme Court heard arguments this week in two major gay marriage cases. As the advocates and justices prepare to spar over California's Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, important constitutional principles had a much-needed day in the sun.

As are some crucial but underappreciated subplots in this whole story about gay rights in America: the degree to which specific religious teachings -- such as Thou Shalt Not Be Gay -- should be enshrined as the law of the land, and the underlying question about the proper relationship between government and religion.

The moment is ripe for religious Americans, especially those Christian conservatives who have led the resistance against gay rights, to remember the importance of keeping church and state independent of one another. "Secularism" is not the church person's bane as it's often made out to be but the best protection ever devised for religious freedom. Let's hope this principle makes it through this major test intact and healthy.

Certainly, the same-sex marriage cases are about more than religion. But much of the energy fueling the traditional marriage movement is religious. After the announcement by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, that he's now supporting gay marriage, Newt Gingrich spoke for many Christian conservatives when he said, "I don't think (politicians) have the power to change what is a religiously inspired definition" of marriage. Gingrich and like-minded religious people are entitled to believe this, of course. But that doesn't mean the government should translate this religious belief into the law.

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