Yes. Count me in as that sort of progressive.There is a certain type of political progressive who would grant institutional religious liberty only to churches, synagogues and mosques, not to religious schools, religious hospitals and religious charities. Such a cramped view of pluralism amounts to the establishment of secularism, which would undermine the long-standing cooperation of government and religious institutions in tasks such as treating addiction, placing children in adoptive homes, caring for the sick and educating the young.
It's a labor issue. Unless the school, hospital, or charity hires only its own members who chose to give up their individual citizenship to the prescriptions of their religious tribe (their choice!), this creates a labor issue. No, institutions serving diverse communities in diverse communities have no business firing their LGBT employees for getting legally married as too many Catholic schools have been doing.
It's a discrimination issue. Nor can they make up their own standards for who is a qualified potential adoptive parent or a qualified nurse. In a diverse society, that has to be a job for the state, mediating conflicts between tribes.
The white evangelical complaint is simply that they can no longer make the rules without engaging in the pulling and hauling of democracy. And that when they do try to engage in the country we have become, they largely lose, though they can do a lot of harm while declining. See also women denied reproductive health care and Mr. Trump.
Gerson goes on to lament that the religious right drives away its own children (as the chart shows). No wonder.
I can be sad in response to this without feeling any sympathy.
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