Attempting to place their concerns in the framework of Biden’s call to unify the nation, the question they suggested but did not ask is how can we have unity with intolerance to conservative Christian values?

Let me get this right:

The previous administration grossly mismanaged a pandemic, largely by denying it while worshiping the false gods of ‘free market’ solutions, and simultaneously geared up for an execution spree.  They also fomented insurrection by lying about a free and fair election, but you want to talk about abortion?

But we do take a stand on birth control.  The best way to reduce abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancies.  And the surest way to do this, is to ensure women have autonomy over their bodies, and unfettered access to a simple and easy to use method to assert the free will that God gave them.

We also need to jettison, once and for all, the notion that fundamentalist religious beliefs have anything meaningful to offer on the subject of healthy human sexuality.  Abstinence doesn’t work because people don’t actually stop having sex.  Neither does the strict social taboo of conservative religious ideology.  Case in point; Jerry Falwell, Jr.

Heir to his father’s moral majority, Falwell continued to espouse that sex outside of marriage (between a ‘natural-born man’ and a ‘natural-born woman’) was wrong.  Yet he didn’t practice what he preached.  Turns out, he liked to watch the pool boy with his wife.

What consenting adults do in private is none of anyone’s business.  And in normal circumstances, I’d have empathy for Falwell; he’s clearly closeted behind the rhetoric and ridicule of his upbringing.

But the message Falwell preached emboldens some Christians to enforce an adamant rejection of anyone outside that particular norm.  For LGBTQ students at Falwell’s Liberty University it creates a hostile environment for some, and for others an odd sense of acceptance in the midst of denial.

Denying our sexuality has manifold consequences when the repression finally gives way to desire.  The persecuted turn on themselves, and religious leaders fail spectacularly, with little remorse or change.

Falwell is just one man.  The modern Catholic Church, on the other hand, protected pedophiles for decades.  And now, for the sake of unity the argument goes, a group of Nuns should be allowed to limit the healthcare of their employees because they feel deliberately avoiding reproduction is immoral.

The moral high ground so often claimed has been defiled time and again by the very people that are supposed to uphold it.  Never mind that among lay Catholics 89 percent say birth control is either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all.  It begs the question; why do people who are celibate have such opinions on human sexuality?

It’s because these issues aren’t about morality or unity, they’re about control.

Religion can be a tremendous vehicle for good.  But when beliefs are used to exclude and deny, they cause harm.  This is why we do not allow one’s religious beliefs to control or deny another.

If you want to hang up a shingle and offer services, you cannot decline to serve to gays.  If you want to be a landlord, you cannot refuse to rent to colored people.  And if you want to be an employer, you don’t get to control access to basic health care.