As predicted, conservatives begin to speak out against religion-promoting laws

For some time now, I’ve been predicting that Christians–evangelicals in particular–would start to speak out against the very laws they are promoting. Laws that grant religious privilege.

It was only a matter of time, and that time has come.

Pamela Geller writes the Atlas Shrugs blog, which focuses on Islamic fundamentalism. She’s co-founder, with Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer, of “Stop Islamization of America”.

Geller is not a Christian; she’s Jewish. But she’s leading the way:

While speaking with conservative radio host Janet Mefferd yesterday, Geller called for the repeal of RLUIPA because “it’s become a weapon in which to club small towns and cities” where Muslims are seeking to establish mosques, lamenting, “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” She said that Muslims are “dishonest” with local governments by “circumventing the rules” on capacity requirements because they pray on their knees. Geller said that RLUIPA must be repealed for the sake of the “freedom from religion,” a phrase normally anathema to Religious Right audiences.

RLUIPA, or the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, is a disastrous 2000 law which gives religious organizations special privileges over local zoning codes and also protects the “religious rights” of prisoners–which has meant things like taxpayer-funded special diets, Bible-burnings, racist Aryan Nation screeds, and Native American ‘sweat lodges’ at prisons.

Learn more about RLUIPA in Luis Granados’ excellent two-part series. Part 1, on land use, is here, and Part 2, on institutionalized persons, is here.

As school voucher efforts pick up steam across the country, and the public finds their tax dollars being redirected not to Christian schools but to Islamic madrassas, I have no doubt that evangelical Christians and Catholics will join Geller in trying to pull the plug on the very monster they’ve created.

When that day will come, I’m not sure. But I hope it’s soon.

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3. Santorum: It Is Our "Obligation" to Make Our Civil Laws "Comport With God's Laws"
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5. Bishops and Christian lobbyists don’t speak for UK ‘Christians’