When five people were stabbed at a Hanukkah celebration in New York on Saturday, it was just another reminder that the recent string of vicious anti-Semitic attacks on Jews shows no signs of abating.
And sadly, new research shows that there’s been an uptick in attacks on religious liberty freedom in general. In light of this disturbing trend, it’s vital we understand how foundational religious liberty is to the American way and why it must remain a priority for all — not just Jews and Christians. The core value of religious tolerance stems from our nation’s very founding.
In 1630, Puritans came to America in search of one thing: religious freedom. Frustrated with the Church of England and the king’s persecution, they began an exodus to the New World, a place where they could speak and worship freely. For Puritans, the freedom to worship anchored the rest of the freedoms we now see in the First Amendment: freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The Puritans helped shape American politics, culture, and government, but religious liberty remained the heart of their purpose.
Fast forward nearly 400 years, and religious liberty issues have ebbed and flowed in terms of intensity and attention.
Even though attacks on religious liberty have increased in the last decade, the liberal media often overlooks many lawsuits between church and state, such as one case challenging whether it’s the government’s right to intervene with religious school choice, or another case detailing a Chabad’s fight in federal court just to build a synagogue. Comparatively speaking, little attention is given to landmark cases of religious liberty importance, even if they affect workplaces and schools, not just the right to worship freely.
The biggest case of the last five years was arguably Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and even that wasn’t exactly a religious freedom issue — it was more of a compelled speech case. Yet the liberal media often misrepresented religious cake baker Jack Phillips, painting him as a backwards anti-gay bigot rather than a Christian with the same right to free speech anyone else has. So even the single biggest case the liberal media focused on isn’t truly about freedom of religion, despite it being such a fundamental right.
First Liberty counsel Jeremy Dys told me: “The First Amendment protects the right of all Americans to peacefully pray together in their own homes, free from the bigotry that leads to the violence we have recently witnessed. Attorney General William Barr understands this, which is why he has been working to uproot anti-Semitism from places like Monsey and Airmont, New York, since the first time he was attorney general.”
While religious freedom may seemingly not matter much to many agnostics or atheists, they should still support it in principle, because when religious liberty begins to fade in importance, respect for individual rights, property, and other liberties all diminishes. We see this happening now with the increase of anti-Semitism in New York and even the sporadic attacks on churches in the last several years.
Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty President Rabbi Mitchell Rocklin told me:
Whether personally religious or not, all Americans should support religious freedom. This can be done through financial support to legal nonprofit organizations that defend freedom of religion, offering a hand of friendship to a person of faith, or engaging in important dialogue with critics. Let’s hope in 2020, more people realize that attacks on religious liberty are attacks on us all.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
