Religious groups favored over private individuals
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The so-called "Religious Liberty Protection Act" (RLPA) is special entitlement legislation favoring religious groups over private individuals, businesses and secular organizations. It threatens the fair application of anti-discrimination laws, work place codes of behavior (such as dress codes), public zoning laws child welfare laws, and the administration of prisons.
People can always claim as a religious front organization that certain races or groups are evil and should not be hired or housed. Laws against such discrimination can be construed as an "undue burden" on what is alleged to be religion. Right here in Peoria recently a so-called "Church" disciple went on a killing spree. Would search of such "Church" premises for guns and explosives be an "undue burden?"
People can claim that dress codes prohibiting clothing promoting religion such as "What Would Jesus Do?" sweat shirts or other paraphernalia at work are restrictive. Would prohibiting such displays by government-paid election workers at the polls be infringing on their religious liberties?
RLPA itself is a legislative attempt to overturn the 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Boerne v. Flores, in which a church used the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to evade local zoning restrictions on the size of buildings. Do people really want the new mammoth-sized super churches with all the attendant crowd and traffic problems in their neighborhoods? Historic preservation laws can also be evaded using RLPA.
It astounds me that in this day and age Medicare and Medicaid pay for faith healing even at a distance. RLPA will allow gullible believers to go one step further and fail to obtain professional medical care for their sick children with impunity — immunity from laws that prevent child neglect.
We all know how Watergate crooks set up ministries in prisons. These followers can claim that certain prison rules and regulations are contrary to their faith. Wine and even drugs such as hashish and peyote can be considered sacramental. Timothy Leary claimed LSD was a sacrament.
RLPA is an exercise in futility and will be struck down as unconstitutional just as the original RFRA was. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that RFRA provided churches with a legal instrument which "no atheist" could hope to obtain. Senators should not indulge in useless political posturing.
Jim Senyszyn
Peoria, Ill.
November 6, 1999
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, November 8, 1999
