Conservatives’ Ultimate Goal Isn’t Religious Freedom, it’s Christian Supremacy- Haaretz

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From abortion to school prayer, the 'religious freedom' touted by Supreme Court judges backed by Evangelical Christian and their Catholic allies will never be accessible to American Jews and Muslims

While the overturning of Roe v. Wade made waves, two no less monumental cases decided in the past few weeks mark an unprecedented reversal in the Supreme Court's stance on separation of church and state. Marching hand-in-hand with right-wing lobbyists, state legislators and media figures, our highest court is now not dispensing justice but leading a crusade for Christian supremacy in America.

In a 6-3 vote, SCOTUS sided with a high school football coach put on leave by the school board after praying on the field with students, reversing over a half a century’s worth of court's rulings that considered teacher-led religious activities in public schools as constitutionally impermissible.

In the second case, with the same 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court declared that the State of Maine must fund religious education as part of a school voucher program.

Chief Justice John Roberts claimed that Maine paying tuition for students to attend secular schools "is discrimination against religion." Dissenting, Justice Sotomayor wrote that SCOTUS had pivoted 180 degree and was now requiring states “to subsidize religious indoctrination with taxpayer dollars." Even more worrying for America’s religious minorities, the dissenting judges warned this decision would destroy the first amendment's free exercise and establishment clauses, created to avoid “religious strife" in a pluralistic society.

None of these radically regressive decisions were conceived suddenly. They're a culmination of two generations’ work to tear down the foundational bases separating church from state.

While liberal America was celebrating globalization and diversity, the Christian right was filing motions, putting judges in on benches around the country, and entrenching their loyalty to the Republican party. By the time Trump was elected, the whole political apparatus was in the movement’s pocket.

And Trump delivered: all these recent decisions were won by a majority ensured by the three judges appointed by Trump who lied about their stance during their nomination, saying that Roe was a "fixed" law. When the time came, these judges stood in their bully pulpit, and dismissed it.

Liberals like to dub the clash with Evangelical Christian conservatism – with their book banning, crusades against critical race theory, and general anti-wokeness – as "culture wars." But these recent rulings make it clear that it's something far more tangible: The conservative Christian right is waging a full-scale religious war, fought in courtrooms and state assemblies. And it is a battle that brokers no compromise: A war of religion that is zero-sum and non-negotiable.

Both recent decisions kill the establishment clause, often understood as meaning public officials cannot promote particular faiths over others. But for the GOP political base, and their representatives in the courts, the righteous return of "religion" and its rights is a narrow version of American Evangelical Christianity and its Catholic allies.

If you want to see what America's Christian conservatives are striving for, simply look at Israel’s 2019 Nation-State Bill. Passed by a right-wing, nationalist-religious government, the law codifies Judaism as the state’s identity to guarantee supremacy over other people. In Israel today, Judaism is a synonym for power.

The government could easily pass such a law because Israel doesn't have a constitution; defining civil rights would supersede the Jewish religious law that religious parties have entrenched in Israel. That's why the Orthodox Rabbinate has a monopoly on religious life; that's why the police can arrest a rabbi for performing a wedding that was not sanctioned by the Rabbinate. In Israel, there is a secular public space – for six days a week – but an Orthodox superstructure containing the state apparatuses and public discourse.

This project has been more complex and circuitous for the American Christian right. They’ve used liberal America's tools against it: religious liberty, freedom of speech, and right of assembly to destroy a pluralist society based on the same ideals. This isn't a problem unique to America. Every democracy needs to contend with its illiberal elements who regard law and the constitution as obstacles to be overcome – not values to be embraced.

It's clear that when the court says “religious schools” should be funded, it means Christian ones: about 75 percent of private school program-funded schools across the country are Christian or Catholic, with only 2 percent Jewish and 1 percent Muslim. In the Maine case, where the schools only hire teachers who are born-again Christians and won’t admit LGBTQ staff or pupils, the equation between Christian and Evangelical is explicit.

When Justice Amy Coney Barrett opined that all schools have “some belief system" and even public schools must decide “the kind of values they want to inculcate in the students,” what she's suggesting is radical: a religion-free space isn't a neutral one. Rather, it's anti-religious. Therefore, one could conclude that each and every public space – from the football field to the classroom – has to decide which side it's on.

The hypocrisy and raw pro-Christian partisanship is clear. Justices Gorsuch and Alito argued in a fiery dissent against New York’s COVID vaccine mandate, which required health care workers be vaccinated even if they cited religious objections, that the New York governor's statements were showed (anti) religious bias. Strangely enough, these two justices weren't so bothered by bias against religious identity when they voted to uphold Trump's Muslim ban.

Republican politicians enthusiastically upheld the religious rights of the owner of Hobby Lobby stores not to offer contraception coverage for its employees. But they railed against building an Islamic community center and mosque near the Lower Manhattan site of the Twin Towers, calling it “The 9/11 mosque.” They were silent when an employee of a New Jersey jail was fired for wearing a hijab.

The American right rails against the supposed trampling of religious liberties for Christians while in the same breath declare Sharia law an imminent threat and talk over Jews and Muslims who see access to abortion as an expression of their religious freedom.

This is a war with the backing of mega corporations. Google and Amazon, who tout themselves as inclusive, have donated millions to political committees that oppose abortion. After Roe was overturned, Instagram and Facebook removed posts by users offering abortion pills. Corporate America is hedging its bets: a pluralistic society is great as long as it's setting the tone and buying products. But if the tides turn, be sure that the Metaverse will become a platform for “authentic” family values.

It’s clear that the American right isn’t concerned with safeguarding the rights of persecuted minorities and ensuring religious liberties but with enshrining Christian supremacy. The Supreme Court, two-thirds male, all Christian, has for the first time in US history, stripped away a right that it had previously codified. Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion on Roe signposts where they’d like to take the fight next: contraception, same-sex marriage, and affirmative action.

Five years ago, Colin Kapernick took a knee on a football field. Conservatives slammed him as a traitor, demanded he be fired, and that he should “go play in Cuba.” He hasn’t played since. For the Christian right, freedom of expression is only applicable if God, and the right God at that, is on your team.

Last week, Representative Lauren Boebert declared that she was “tired of this separation of church and state junk." A more blatant (perhaps more honest) warning to U.S. Jews came from Lauren Witzke, Delaware’s 2020 GOP Senate nominee: "We are a Christian nation, founded by Christians, and YES – we should legislate our faith on you. If you don’t like it, get out."

It’s time for liberals and non-sectarian religious leaders to enter the fray, properly, with principle and with passion. They must set aside a pointless instinct for compromise and, like their counterparts on the Christian right, establish non-negotiable red lines. Liberals and religious leaders who are committed to the equal rights of Jews, Muslims and other minorities safeguarded by a secular public square must stand guard against the forcible unification of church and state and the institutionalization of Christian supremacy.