Readers React: The insidiousness of the Hobby Lobby decision

To the editor: That’s rich, a Christian activist law firm calling itself the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom. Equally Orwellian phrasing titles the constitutionally dubious Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which the Becket firm has cited to obtain ill-considered U.S. Supreme Court decisions favoring Christianity over sound public policy. (“Law firm in Hobby Lobby win is playing key role in religion cases,” July 19)

For truth in advertising, how about “the Becket Fund for Denying Nonbelievers’ Rights to Freedom from Religion”?

So what if this firm advocates a Muslim prison inmate’s right to grow a beard. That ploy likely will prevail as a bone thrown to non-Christian detractors, but its narrow application betrays the firm’s ulterior motive: to set up more far-reaching court rulings to favor the Christian majority.

Edward Alston, Santa Maria

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To the editor: The lawyers for Hobby Lobby don’t seek religious freedom. As with the recent Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, they seek the right to extend their religious beliefs to apply to everyone else.

All over the world, it’s common for those who practice a particular religion not to be satisfied with their own personal religious freedom. They are not happy until their faith has more influence.

In Iraq, this conflict gets people killed. In the U.S., the Supreme Court allows businesses to force employees to comply with owners’ religious beliefs.

The freedom of religion in the 1st Amendment prevents the government from establishing a religion. Once the immense power of government assists one religion, all others suffer.

Norwood Price, Burbank