An open letter to @PastorHutch,

You recently stated that "Muslims have more rights and freedom of religion than I do as a Christian" and then followed it a collection of examples that do not, in fact, support your assertion but rather reveal that you, like so many Christians, make the mistake of conflating religious privilege with religious freedom.

"Tell a Muslim he can’t pray at school or at the airport or downtown when prayer time is called for, and see what happens." Why would anyone tell a Muslim they cannot pray in any of those places at any time? Or perhaps we should just cut to the chase here, since we both know we are really talking about you and your faith. Please provide evidence of a Christian child who was not allowed to, for example, pray before a test at school or over his meal at lunch. Please provide evidence of a Christian who was not allowed to pray for traveling mercies before a flight. Please provide evidence of a Christian who was not allowed to pray while in a park or walking down a public street. Other than the sort of outliers that get immediately knocked back into place by the law, I assert you will not be able to find any. And do you know why? Because Christians have this freedom. They always have. Nothing has changed. What Christians do not have is the right to lead people of other or no faiths in a state-sponsored prayer to their specific god.

I get your angst; I really do. Christians have been allowed an inappropriate cultural dominance for decades; centuries even. They have been able to lead prayers in state school assemblies and other such events for as long as they can remember. And only now are their actions — illegal by the light of the very Constitution your Tea Party members regularly elevate to the standard of Scripture — being curtailed in accordance with the law. It's not that your rights are being taken away. It's that you were allowed to illegally exceed them all this time and now your faith has to finally play by the same rules as everyone else’s. Imagine a simple thought experiment with me — in a school assembly, a Muslim cleric leads a prayer to almighty Allah, that his will would be done, that all would come to know him alone, and that the country's government would come to reflect the perfect moral dictates of Sharia law. If you were a parent of such a child, would you not be incensed? I'm rather certain you would be (goodness knows Christians regularly get upset for far less) and, in fact, you have every right to be. It is wrong for a state school to allow such an activity. But if you would find such a prayer objectionable, is it really so hard to see why others find it objectionable when you do it? Is it really so hard to put yourself in their shoes?

A democracy protects the rights of everyone, even and especially those with the least ability to generate a voice. For you or anyone to contend that you should be granted special dispensation to skirt the law merely because the majority of people believe as you do (how many times have we both heard people say something to the effect of, “This is a Christian nation, therefore…”) makes you both a bully and a bad American.

The state, you see, is not allowed to endorse any one religion over another. It is supposed to remain neutral, to be impartial and, though I know it's a word you hate, secular when it comes to matters of faith. This is the same issue as placing 10 Commandment monuments on state capitol or courthouse grounds. The presence of these items flaunts the spirit, letter and intent of the law. There are no restrictions whatsoever to you placing such a monument on your church grounds or your front lawn, or indeed, any privately owned space. The only time people of other or no faith stand up to your sense of entitlement is when you want these things placed as if they are reflections of the government itself and of its will, which they are not and cannot be. You may recall that many of our forefathers — though, regrettably, not yours — came to America specifically to get away from state-sponsored religion and oppression. They did not want the government telling them how they should worship. So why then, do you want the government to show favoritism here? Could it be because the faith being favored is your own?

You continued: "Tell a Muslim cleric serving as a chaplain in our brilliant military that he has to marry a same-sex couple, and see what happens." Well, probably the same thing that would happen with a Christian chaplain or a chaplain of any other faith. Contrary to your assertions, no military chaplain has ever been, nor ever will be, required to perform a same gender wedding if doing so is contrary to their religious traditions. The recent DOMA ruling will not force chaplains to perform same-sex marriages. In fact, it explicitly forbids it. The DOMA ruling only involves federal recognition of same-sex marriages performed in those states that allow it. There is no federal law saying that they have to be allowed. Furthermore, chaplains are covered by the same ministerial exception that a civilian pastor is. They cannot be forced to perform any marriage. To continue to insist otherwise, as you and a great many Christians are doing, is dishonest — last I checked a “no no” according to all those 10 Commandment monuments on all those courthouse lawns.

You said later: "Let me say Merry Christmas on a national holiday called Christmas and you’d think Satan incarnate himself just showed up." Come now, doctor, no one is telling you that you can't say Merry Christmas. This is not a legal issue, so let's not pretend it is. This is a matter of basic respect. Again, it is an acknowledgment that not everyone believes as you do. Imagine that. And some — namely companies in the business of making money, which is done by offending the least amount of people and kissing up the greatest amount — have chosen to say "Happy Holidays" instead of the more exclusive "Merry Christmas," thus encompassing the many celebrations and faiths that observe the long winter season, and not just a single one. Is that so hard to understand? Now, I'm not saying some people haven't taken this too far, and frankly I don't care a whit if you wish me a Merry Christmas, particularly on the specific day when it is, in fact, appropriate — after all, as Christians are fond of pointing out, the holiday is far more secular and commercial now than it is as a day of religious observance. But, please, let's not skulk and brood and whinge and pretend that this inclusiveness is tantamount to a war on your faith. Because that just makes you sound silly. Are you silly? If not, now would be a good time to stop acting like it.

To conclude, I strongly urge you to come up with a list of those Christian religious liberties you have henceforth enjoyed that are now being curtailed. Let me be clear — not the cessation of special religious privileges, immunities, favoritism, exemptions and overreach which has been allowed to continue for so long that it has become institutionalized to the point that removing it is genuinely painful and culturally disorienting, but legitimate rights that have been, by edict of law, removed. I want to know how you, as a Christian, are not being allowed to follow the dictates of your holy book. I know the erasure of religious privilege feels like an attack on religious freedom, but it is not. Until you can point to specific examples of how your ability to practice your faith, in accordance with the protections granted you by law, has been eradicated, the rest of us have no reason to take you or your protestations seriously.

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