CONSTITUTION - Reminder, Religious Freedom

I am posting the following article as a reminder of what could happen in America if we allow the Ultra-Conservative Religious Right to use public law to enforce their religious dogma. Examples: Anti-Gay Marriage laws, or forcing Biblical Creationism on public schools.

America could end up with a Christian version of this:

"Saudi convicts 15 men, women for mingling at party" by ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI, AP 6/23/2010

Judicial officials say a Saudi court has convicted four women and 11 men for mingling at a party and sentenced them to flogging and prison terms.

The men, who are between 30 and 40 years old, and three of the women, who are under the age of 30, were sentenced to an unspecified number of lashes and one or two year prison terms each.

The fourth woman, a minor, was sentenced to 80 lashes and was not sent to prison.

The ruling was handed down on Tuesday at a court in the northern town of Ha'il.

The officials say the police saw the group partying until dawn last month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam that prohibits unrelated men and women from mingling.