Pillar N · Liberty
Religious Liberty and Conscience Protection
“Religious liberty is the law, not the exception to it.”
The First Amendment protects belief AND practice. Conscience protection for medical professionals, counselors, teachers, business owners, and faith-based adoption and foster agencies.
Where I stand
- Penalties for disrupting religious worship.
- Conscience protection across the professions.
- Protect faith-based adoption and foster agencies.
Pushback, answered
The hard questions, answered straight.
These are the real objections this position gets, with the same answers Zac gives in person. No talking points. No dodges.
“This is just a license to discriminate.”
Nothing in what I support gives anyone permission to mistreat anyone. What I oppose is the state forcing a person to participate in ceremonies or expressive activities that violate their deepest beliefs. Conscience is not a license to harm, it is a shield against compulsion.
“Medical professionals took an oath. If they cannot do their job they should find another one.”
The Hippocratic tradition begins with first, do no harm. Telling a nurse she must choose between participating in a procedure she believes is harmful and losing her career is not medical ethics, it is ideological coercion, and it will drive good people out of medicine in a state that cannot afford to lose them. Conscience and compassion go together.
“Separation of church and state means religion does not belong in public life.”
The First Amendment prohibits government from establishing a religion. It does not prohibit citizens from practicing theirs, including in public. Religious liberty belongs to every citizen, of every faith, everywhere they go. That is the American settlement and it has served us for two and a half centuries.
“Faith-based agencies that will not place children with every couple should lose state contracts.”
When the state forces faith-based agencies to choose between their faith and their mission, the agencies close and the children wait. More agencies of every kind means more children placed in loving homes. Kids first, ideology last.