An Incident In New Orleans Shows How Religious Freedom Can Become Religious Tyranny

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Freedom is defined as having the power or right to act, worship, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint, and in America it is regarded as a sacred and Constitutional right. As Americans have witnessed over the past few years, freedom, particularly religious freedom, is reserved exclusively for evangelical Christians who drove home the point this week that their religious freedom supersedes every other Americans’ liberty, and empowers them to barge into a place of worship, interrupt a sacred service, and demand repentance and compliance to evangelical tyranny; with praise from city leaders.

This week evangelical anti-choice activists congregated in New Orleans to protest a woman’s right to choose, and took their religious tyranny into the sanctuary of a church, interrupted a service, and loudly informed congregants they do not worship according to the “true faith” and warned them to repent; all during a moment of silence for a recently deceased church member. It is the new definition of religious freedom Americans better get used to and understand that religious tyranny is entering a militant stage.

The group responsible for what can only be labeled religious terrorism is Operation Save America; the group tied to the assassination of Dr. George Tiller during another church service. The group targeted the First Unitarian Universalist Church in New Orleans because it regards it as a “synagogue of Satan” and warned worshippers to “repent” and worship according to the “true faith;” Christian fundamentalism. If the language sound like that expressed during the Crusade and Inquisition, it is because that is precisely where evangelicals are taking America. This is America’s new religious freedom, and if any American thought Taliban-like militants abridging other Americans freedom to worship would never happen in america, what happened in New Orleans should disabuse them of that idea.

Displaying decidedly Christian tolerance, the guest speaker at the Church service, the Reverend Deanna Vandiver, lovingly invited the evangelical interlopers to either join the worship service respectfully or do what other evangelicals do; stand on the outside and scream at worshippers from the sidewalk. Reverend Vandiver said she was not completely sure why the evangelical terrorists interrupted the worshippers, but it is certainly because the Unitarian Universalists believe a woman’s reproductive rights are not the purview of evangelical and Catholic fanatics. In fact, the Unitarian’s official position is opposing “any attempt to enact a position on private morality into public law” that is contrary to evangelical Christians, Republicans, and conservatives on the Supreme Court concept of “religious freedom.”

In a post appealing for tolerance from evangelical terrorists, Reverend Vandiver wrote that “We have a lot of different opinions in this country about family planning. However, there is a moral consensus about religious terrorism. NO ONE should invade the sanctuary of another’s faith to terrorize people as they worship. I call on everyone of every faith tradition and no faith tradition to stand with on the side of love and resist the evil of the week of hate being visited upon the city of New Orleans.” Vandiver’s account of the religious terrorism was; “Into that sacred silence, a voice began to speak, and it began to speak about ‘abominations’ and shouts that the church was not a true faith. Literally in our most tender and vulnerable space, religious terrorism began.”

Operation Save America (OSA) viewed their religious assault on worshippers differently and celebrated their victory in a proclamation. “At the Unitarian Universalist “church” in New Orleans, we presented the truth of the Gospel in this synagogue of Satan. As God would have it. According to Rev. Flip Benham, the team presented a ‘dynamic witness’ during an open “meditation” time. When the female “pastor” took issue, she was reminded that, “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones” (Luke 17:2). In violation of their “sacred tenants” of peace and tolerance, Deanna (lead terrorist) and others were summarily escorted out of the service. Other saints stayed until the conclusion of the service and created no small stir. Our brethren defended the faith.” The second millennium religious Crusades were confident, aggressive, and Papal Christian-led religious wars to “defend the true faith” and they are beginning in America.

Curiously, New Orleans’ mayor Mitch Landrieu issued an official proclamation welcoming the evangelical tyrants including a signed certificate thanking the Christian extremists for their “service” to the city.The mayor’s welcome prompted residents to sign a petition asking the mayor to reconsider. “Regardless of personal ideologies, most Americans agree that harassing women and threatening doctors is extreme behavior that should not be welcomed by the mayor’s office. The certificates signed by you gives them a legitimacy that they do not deserve.” The conservatives on the Supreme Court would disagree and remind decent New Orleans’ residents that OSA’s legitimacy was validated in the Hobby Lobby ruling.

The mayor’s office attempted to downplay the “certificate” and issued a statement saying, “It is routine for the City to provide standard proclamations to visiting non-profits, faith-based organizations and conventions that request them. As this group exercises its constitutional rights, the NOPD is executing a robust security plan to keep the peace.” First, a city should not need a robust security plan to protect residents and worshippers, especially during a church service, from religious extremists terrorizing other church-goers. Second, it is likely that New Orleans’ law enforcement is as mortified of Republican and High Court repercussions for “violating the religious freedom” of evangelical terrorists as Republicans, teabaggers, and Supreme Court conservatives are religious about defending them.

Americans are witnessing, whether they want to believe it or not, the early stages of religious tyranny under the banner of religious liberty, religious freedom, or free exercise of religion according to conservative Christians’ beliefs. If they think it will stop at disrupting worship services over a woman’s right to choose their own reproductive health, they are tragically deluded. When the conservatives on the High Court effectively neutered the Establishment Clause by elevating evangelical Christians’ rights according to their distortion of the Free Exercise Clause, they empowered religious extremists to fulfill the mission of the Manhattan Declaration and Christian Dominionists; impose a Christian theocracy in America.

In a nation founded on religious freedom and liberty for all citizens, the idea that a band of religious terrorists could disrupt a church service with impunity is an abomination most Americans would attribute to the Taliban. However, now that a small number of Christian fundamentalist extremists were granted supremacy over the freedom of every other American by judicial fiat, Americans should prepare themselves for a 21st Century Crusades by evangelical terrorists “defending the true faith;” the one thing the Founding Fathers knew was the greatest threat to liberty and would hasten the demise of a nation founded on freedom.

Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.