Much as freedom of speech means nothing without the right to say things that the authorities don't approve of, religious freedom means nothing without the right to dissent for religious freedom. Anything less than that is not religious freedom.
As this latest judicial coup against democracy and the Bill of Rights reminds us.
A federal judge struck down Mississippi's controversial "religious freedom" law late Thursday, hours before it was slated to take effect. If allowed to go forward, the law -- known as House Bill 1523 -- would have made it easier for individuals, organizations and private associations to deny services based on religious objections to one of three things: same-sex marriage, transgender rights and even extramarital sexual relationships.
In his 60-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, a President Obama appointee, concluded that the law "violates both the guarantee of religious neutrality and the promise of equal protection of the laws." Reeves' decision to block HB 1523 in its entirety came three days after he struck down a Kim Davis-inspired portion of the law that would have allowed clerks to refuse to issue marriage licenses based on "sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions."
"Religious freedom was one of the building blocks of this great nation, and after the nation was torn apart, the guarantee of equal protection under law was used to stitch it back together," he wrote. "But HB 1523 does not honor that tradition of religion freedom, nor does it respect the equal dignity of all of Mississippi's citizens. It must be enjoined."
Religious freedom was a building block, but then it had to make way for equal protection mandates. And now it no longer exists as every time religion contradicts a left-wing project, it has to step aside.
That's not religious freedom. Religious freedom is the right to dissent from government. Without dissent, there is no religious freedom. Only the left's secular ideological theocracy.