There are different ways of interpreting the 1st Amendment.
For example, Alcoholics Anonymous requires a belief in a “higher power,” and the court can require someone to attend A.A. meetings if one drives drunk.
Also, there are religious organizations that run adoption services, and these organizations can refuse to work with gay couples . . . even though gay marriage is legal, and there are children that need loving homes.
Also, the military screens out recruits that are “spiritually unfit,” and atheistic soldiers do not get promoted. One of the rationales behind this policy is that a leader should be expected to pray with his men before a battle, and any sarcasm or insincerity during this process may hurt morale and cost lives (or so the argument goes).
There are similar arguments that apply to my work as a paramedic, and there is the idea that things like abducting children to force them into gay conversion therapy shouldn’t bother me if I’m not religious (as I have no moral compass), or I should be in favor of gay conversion therapy if I am religious.
So I have no grounds to refuse to participate in dragging a screaming, crying adolescent to a brutal program of emotional, physical, and verbal abuse to “make him a real man.”
And yes, I think mercy ships might be a very good idea.
Thank you again.