Exerpt below. Read the entire article at the Boston Herald.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Joseph Kennedy III and other Democratic lawmakers are pushing back on what they call attempts to circumvent anti-discrimination laws and other protections under the guise of religious freedom.
But it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
In a presidential year, with Congress locked in a partisan stalemate and even the U.S. Supreme Court hopelessly deadlocked, this measure doesn’t have a prayer.
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The Rev. Frank A. Pavone of Priests for Life said that on one hand, Kennedy “is right — it makes sense to say that I can exercise my religious freedom, but in doing so I cannot take away the fundamental rights of someone else.”
But the legislation is the wrong way to address that, he said, because courts can’t be the judge of individuals’ faith.
“When it comes to the matter of religious freedom, we are going to the core of the human conscience, the human soul,” Pavone said. “How are you going to dispute that?”