Atten­tion, reli­gious con­ser­v­a­tives decry­ing the government’s crack­down on your reli­gious free­dom: you’ve got it all wrong. See, you think reli­gious free­dom means you have the right to prac­tice your reli­gion wher­ever, and when­ever, you like. Not true.

Reli­gious free­dom actu­ally means “free­dom from religion.”

Let me explain.

Clearly, you are free to prac­tice what­ever reli­gion you like. We agree on that. I can­not force you to prac­tice my reli­gion. Like­wise, you can’t make me prac­tice your reli­gion. Nobody is drag­ging any­body into a church here. Your reli­gious free­dom is actu­ally the free­dom to not be dragged into my church.

In other words, you (or your daugh­ter) are free to not wear a hijab. Not your reli­gion, so nobody’s going to make you do it. Awe­some. That also means that my kids are free to not pray in pub­lic school. Not their reli­gion, nobody’s going to make them do it. Double-rainbow awesome.

So nobody imposes their reli­gion on any­one else. Reli­gious free­dom in Amer­ica, as the found­ing fathers envi­sioned it. Huz­zah! Don’t you think we should all be able to agree on that?

Please apply this to your own life. And get your reli­gion out of mine. Thanks.