Religious Liberty and Equality, nyt Brooks

Brooks frequently misinterprets America, through the colored glasses of misunderstanding the difference between right to believe and promulgate that belief and the right to act in accordance to that belief. God's laws, as interpreted by individuals and by their religious community simply come in in second place to the secular laws passed by the legislatures and in third place when put against the First Amendment. If your religion tells you to kill the infidel and you commit murder you are guilty of murder. God will love you but the people will punish you. If your religion tells you gay and lesbian people are the greatest offense to God ever imagined and you refuse to serve them you have deprived those people of their right to equal protection of the laws. You have broken the civil rights acts. You are a criminal. God may well love you, but the people will punish you. All men are created equal. Their Gods and goddesses are not created equal, some gods are interpreted to be vicious bigoted self-serving killers and war mongers. Some are less hateful. Some have drowned every human being on the planet except for one 'righteous' family.