In America, one has the freedom to practice their religion, but not to inflict it on others.

America isn’t chiefly concerned about the practice of religion. America is about the practice of a democracy that honors the freedom of all its participants based on the principle of equality.

The deal is that the state won’t impose upon one’s private beliefs and will not favor one religion over another in the realm of public life. We are, by design, not a Christian nation. We are a nation where every religion is equal under the law and none can circumvent the law in the name of a higher authority than our Constitution. The Bible can be interpreted freely by anyone according to their own authority. They can give their individual amen to whatever they pick and choose, even if it misses the overarching truths at its core. But, the Constitution’s instruction, until amended, or reinterpreted by judiciary representation of the people, stands as secular law for all to adhere to. The will of the people says “so be it.” That is our collective secular amen.

Sometimes that amen is poorly considered, an amen to a majority interest. The golden rule should rule both religious and secular life, but too often it is ignored altogether.

Religious belief is acquired. No one is born religious, but rather indoctrinated or converted. Some think that is the case with certain sexual orientations as well, while, at the same time, believing that there is divinely only one true religious identity to be discovered.

Imagine if they were told that their faith was wrong, socially unacceptable, an abomination better secreted, and that they must pretend to adhere to a majority orientation. Even if they might be allowed to freely express their personal orientation, others shouldn’t be forced to accommodate that expression.

Fortunately, our secular law protects against discrimination, from or against religious belief.

That protection is seen by some as a threat to true religious freedom, interpreted as the freedom to ignore secular law in conflict with personal belief.

In our democracy, you are free to discriminate on all manner of things, but you are not free to discriminate as to the law. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, under its federal guise, reinforces that point. It protects individuals against undo repression of their religious wishes, as long as those wishes do not interfere with the lawful freedoms of others.

You can refuse service to someone without shoes or a shirt. You can even discriminate against someone because of their shirt, unless they profess it a hair shirt. You cannot refuse them because of who they fundamentally are. They cannot be lawfully discriminated against because of what they cannot change, like religious identity. That is the spirit of the law.

Religious affiliation is a choice. Religious belief is not. It is part of one’s being.

Sexual preference is a choice. Sexual identity is not. It is who one is.

Age, disability, ethnicity, gender, marital status, national origin, race, religion and sexual orientation define who a person is. It is their character, not their politics.

Discrimination against who one inescapably is should never be tolerated in a fair and just society, a society that champions freedom. Using one’s own freedom to deny freedom to another is fundamentally un-American, even though America is still struggling with that learning curve.

Some would like to move America back into its past. Some wish to return to a time even further backward, when there was no secularism, no non-religious law.

Religious belief isn’t under attack by secularism. It has always been protected by it. That is what defines secularism. Separation of the state from religious institutions is what enables people of different religions and beliefs to remain equal before the law.

What is under attack is religious belief interpreted to the detriment of others.

Prejudice, bias, bigotry, intolerance, inequity and unfairness are all freedoms we can enjoy if we choose to, unless they are practiced in education, employment, housing, government benefits and services, health care, land use, banking, public accommodation, transportation and voting. You are free to discriminate, but you are not free to circumvent the law.

If you are homophobic, or just truly cannot condone marriage other than between a man a woman, you are free to not frequent a bakery owned by a gay or lesbian couple. That is your choice, your freedom, whether based on religious interpretation of truth or not. They lose business, but not their civil rights. Your religious freedom is still protected.

If you are the owner of a bakery and deny public accommodation to a gay couple, or gay or lesbian individuals intending marriage, your interpretation of the Bible, or your purely secular decision of discrimination, violates the Constitution as surely as if homosexual business owners refused you service because of your religious convictions.

Religious freedom in America doesn’t need to be restored, it needs instruction in what being American is fundamentally about.

It would also be of great civic advancement for some to reread that shorter, newer, Christian Testament of the Bible.

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Gary Anderson lives in Bath.