Is Freedom Really Free to All?

As many people prepare themselves to head out to the park, or their back yard to set up their barbecues, picnics, or blankets and chairs for the night time fireworks display meant to commemorate the freedom that was won the day this nation declared it’s independence from Europe, it would seem that it was only a few days ago that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby upsetting many who forget that even family business owners have freedom too. It would appear that many are failing to consider the reality that the same freedom that was won by those who fought for freedom of religion, is now being called into question by those who have chosen to exercise that right to live out their religious freedom in how they operate their business.

What Hobby Lobby has won is not the right to exclude women from their freedom of choice in what birth control they wish to use; they only won the right to say that they don’t have to be required to provide a method that goes against their own belief. Nor did they say that birth control in total was against their belief, nor would be provided, just a particular form of birth control. This is not to say that a woman cannot still get that birth control some other way, such as private insurance or through the now available “Affordable Health Care.”

The question becomes, is religious freedom only permissible in the confines of a church building? If that’s the case, then we’re facing another problem in a new Supreme Court case. If you don’t think your religious freedoms are slowly being whittled away at you need only take one look at the trailer for the upcoming movie Persecuted. Is freedom only for one sector of society or is it for all Americans?

This Independence Day, I’ll choose to be thankful that I as yet still live in a country that at some level aspires to uphold the principles of it’s Founding Fathers, believing that all men are endowed with certain unalienable rights; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that being not just for some but for all who live under the banner of the stars and stripes of the American Flag. The idea that I can own a business that I can run as I choose to, not as I’m told how to; that a Republic such as ours allows for government oversight and not government control.

Freedoms aren’t just for the convenience of some, but for all. True, even freedoms have their limits through laws, meant to ensure that none tread over another’s freedoms, but in this case, Hobby Lobby has not tread over anyone’s freedom to choose, just stood upon their own principle to not participate in how another chooses to exercise their own.

QUESTION: What are your thoughts concerning the ruling for Hobby Lobby? Is freedom just for some or for all?