The right to the free exercise of religion, guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, is one that should be enjoyed by all. But this is only possible when we all understand what real religious freedom is. While for some this means the right to worship the deity of one’s understanding in the fellowship of a like-minded community, for others, it means being free to pursue an unorthodox path, or not to worship at all.

But in recent times, a disturbing movement has emerged wherein some adherents believe their right to religious practice includes the authority to enforce their own orthodox imperatives upon others, up to and including the whole of society. Some Republicans go so far as to demand that their manner of Christianity be enshrined as the official state religion. This is plainly wrong. It’s obvious on its face that enforcing a set of beliefs onto others who do not share them is a violation of religious freedom, not an expression of it.

For example, in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Hobby Lobby, a privately held corporation — a separate, legal person that only exists because our laws say it can — could enjoy a religious right to deny its employees contraception under its insurance plan, even when it cost the company nothing financially. In plain language, the arguments put forth and the opinions issued by the court made it so that an unnatural person — a corporation — could enforce the religious beliefs of its owners on employees who do not share those beliefs. This is a clear violation of those employees’ First Amendment rights, and it’s appalling that in America they’ve been forced to endure it.

Similarly, in Texas, laws enacted to outlaw access to certain needed forms of health care have been solidly — I’d even say exclusively — based in religious invocations and rhetoric. Folks, our government is supposed to be secular according to constitutional mandate. But in Texas, the government is now enlisted as the enforcer of the religious beliefs of one segment of our society. This is flatly wrong on First Amendment grounds, and it must be repealed.