A central tenet of the American way of life is individual freedom.

All of us should be able to make our own decisions about our private affairs without interference from far-right religious organizations that seek to impose a narrow interpretation of the Bible on everyone.

Religious Right pressure groups do not support personal choice. Instead, they oppose church-state separation and seek political power to mandate their doctrines. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people would be especially hard hit if the Religious Right succeeds. Here’s why.

The Religious Right’s mean-spirited and frequently vicious attacks on LGBT Americans are well known and well documented. TV preacher and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson once asserted that being gay is “a sickness, and it needs to be treated.” He also asserted, “Many of those people involved with Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together.”

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the notoriously anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition has stated, “As Christians, we view homosexuality not only as an unhealthy lifestyle, but the Bible views homosexuality as a sinful behavior.” He once even suggested that people with AIDS be quarantined like lepers.

James Dobson, founder of the Focus on the Family empire, sponsors so-called “Love Won Out” conferences that seek to convert LGBT Americans into heterosexual fundamentalist Christians. He denounces the concept of tolerance as “a desensitization to evil of all varieties.”

Religious Right groups back up this shrill rhetoric with an extreme political agenda. Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, the Traditional Values Coalition, the Alliance Defense Fund, the Christian Coalition and their politician allies want to impose their fundamentalist viewpoint on all Americans. Americans United for Separation of Church and State is fighting to make sure they don’t succeed.

Here are some church-state controversies that merit close attention:

Marriage Amendments:

Religious Right groups and their allies are spearheading well-funded drives to enact state and federal constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage.

This crusade raises serious church-state concerns. Some religious denominations perform same-sex unions, while others do not. These constitutional amendments are designed to take the doctrines of the groups that do not and enshrine them in our nation’s foundational governing documents. If conservative religious groups succeed, LGBT Americans will be relegated to permanent second-class citizenship.

Americans United is part of a broad coalition of groups that opposes these measures. On both the federal and state levels, we are working to ensure that all citizens are treated with fairness regardless of their views about religion.

This controversy is steadily growing in scope. The Religious Right, the Catholic bishops and the Mormon hierarchy joined forces in 2008 to win adoption of Proposition 8, a California constitutional amendment that writes their doctrines about marriage into civil law. It is simply wrong for the government to base its public policies on the tenets of one faith or the tenets of several faiths operating in coalition. Sectarian values are not always in line with democratic values.

As the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of AU, noted in a press statement about California’s Prop. 8, “Allowing powerful religious groups to take away minority rights by referenda is fundamentally at odds with what America is about.”

AU respects the right of denominations to decide whom they wish to marry. Civil law, however, should be based on the democratic principles of individual freedom and equality. The wall of separation between church and state was erected to ensure that civil law and religious law remain separate.

 “I think we would eliminate some, but not all, of the cantankerous debate on same-sex marriage if we did what many of the nations in Europe do, which is to separate the civil aspects of marriage and the religious aspects,” Lynn said.

Faith-Based Initiatives:

Religious Right groups and their sectarian allies aggressively seek public funding for religion. President George W. Bush’s “faith-based” initiative, which directed billions of tax funds into the coffers of religious groups, drew strong support from these activists.

The payoff was significant. Pat Robertson’s controversy-plagued Operation Blessing, for example, was awarded $1.5 million in federal faith-based subsidies.

President Bush is no longer in office, but the concept of faith-based funding lives on. The Bush executive orders implementing his initiative remain in place. Furthermore, a large number of states have set up faith-based offices to steer public funds to religion.

Religious Right forces are lobbying hard to maintain governmental policies that allow religiously affiliated groups to take our tax dollars yet retain the right to discriminate in hiring. Thus, a fundamentalist church or charity could take public funds to run a social service program and then refuse to hire qualified job applicants for adhering to the “wrong” religion or for being “sinful.”

This is not just a theoretical concern. In Kentucky, a lesbian who had excellent performance reviews was fired from a Baptist-run but publicly funded home for troubled youngsters after she was photographed taking part in an AIDS walk. A Georgia lesbian was denied a promotion and then fired from her position at a children’s home after her sexual orientation came to light.

Religious groups have the right to hire whomever they want with privately raised funds. They should not have the right to accept tax funding to operate government programs and then hang out a sign reading, “Staff Sought for Taxpayer-Funded Job. No Gays Need Apply.”

As U.S. Rep. Barney Frank noted in arguing against the faith-based initiative in Congress, the proposal could easily lead to government-sponsored racism as well as discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The faith-based initiative poses other problems as well. Some religious groups accept government funding yet refuse to offer services to certain classes of people. In Anoka County, Minn., clergy at a publicly funded social service program run by a Missouri-Synod Lutheran church refused to help a transsexual, citing an alleged conflict with church doctrine.

In 2004, a congressional subcommittee studying the faith-based initiative even entertained testimony from a representative of an “ex-gay” ministry. It’s fair to ask if such groups might some day qualify for faith-based funding.

Congress is expected to take up the faith-based issue this year as appropriations bills come up. In addition, civil rights and civil liberties groups are asking President Obama to act now to correct the constitutional and policy orders enforced during the Bush era.

Americans United has led the fight against the faith-based initiative. Those of us who support fairness for all must see to it that tax dollars never subsidize discrimination, indoctrination or proselytism.

Government Aid to Religious Schools:

The Religious Right opposes public education and enthusiastically supports vouchers, tuition tax credits and other forms of taxpayer funding of religious and other private schools.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 76 percent of private schools are religious in character. Many are affiliated with churches and denominations that are aggressively hostile to the LGBT community. Religious schools are free to expel LGBT youth, and they can deny employment to LGBT teachers and other staff.

In addition, many fundamentalist Christian academies use textbooks that slander LGBT Americans. One prominent line of books is published by Bob Jones University in South Carolina. One Bob Jones textbook bluntly states, “These [gay] people have no more claim to special rights than child molesters or rapists.” A second publisher of fundamentalist texts, A Beka, promotes similar views.

Some Catholic schools also have policies that are problematic for LGBT people. While many American Catholics hold progressive views on social issues, the hierarchy remains steadfastly opposed to gay rights.

The official church catechism, which traditionalists urge all Catholic schools to stress, states, “[T]radition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law…. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

Religious schools have the right to determine their own curriculum and dogma. But they should have no right to make all of us pay for the propagation of those beliefs with our tax dollars. For decades, Americans United has led the fight against tax aid to religious schools, and this remains a top priority for us today. Public funds should be spent for public purposes, not private religious instruction.

Church-Based Partisan Politicking:

Houses of worship and other non-profit groups have the right to address social and political issues. But federal tax law forbids tax-exempt entities to endorse or oppose candidates for public office. Such actions are clearly prohibited by the Internal Revenue Code.

Prodded by the Religious Right, U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (R- N.C.) and other members of Congress are trying to overturn the ban on church electioneering. Under their scheme, houses of worship would be permitted to promote or oppose candidates yet still remain tax exempt.

Lifting the ban on church electioneering would give Religious Right groups free rein to politick in pulpits and steer non-profit resources toward far-right candidates who oppose diversity. In a worst-case scenario, they would be free to construct a church-based political machine that dominates the democratic process and imposes their religion by law.

Americans United has helped organize the opposition to church-electioneering legislation in Congress, and we have disseminated educational literature to churches nationwide on the provisions of federal tax law. Houses of worship must not become cogs in a partisan political machine.

Censorship Campaigns:

Religious Right groups have spearheaded censorship campaigns against any work they deem “offensive.” These crusades often target books about human sexuality or works of fiction that deal with LGBT themes.

A national organization called “Family Friendly Libraries” lobbies to have books about LGBT topics, the “occult” and other issues placed on restricted access or removed from public libraries altogether. Even children’s books have been targeted. The gay-friendly tomes Heather Has Two Mommies, Daddy’s Roommate and King and King are frequent censorship targets. In addition, books that discuss LGBT issues in a factual and academic manner are often attacked.

This denial of information – especially to teens who may be struggling with their sexual orientation – is more than wrong, it’s dangerous. Young people at this stage need access to objective material, and it is a public library’s duty to provide that information. If the Religious Right has its way, these books will be cordoned off in a special room, making them effectively off limits to the audience that most needs them.

Americans United supports public schools and libraries that offer instruction and information based on sound academic standards, not religious bias.

The Religious Right’s agenda is frightening. These aggressive fundamentalist groups have a wide-ranging plan for America that includes as many restrictions on individual rights as possible. Those of us who believe in the American commitment to personal freedom must defend the separation of church and state.