At the Nieman Watchdog blog, Carolyn Lewis argues that the victory of California’s Proposition 8 opposing the judicial imposition of “gay marriage” shows that there’s a “disabling tendency in this country to tiptoe around certain religious beliefs and thus grant them more power than they reasonably warrant.” She claims that she has no problem with the practice of religion, as long as those harsh dogmatic believers stay utterly silent and make no political expression. If they do, they should be exposed as cruel and divisive:

As a non-believer myself (a proud one), I have no objection to anybody else choosing to follow a particular faith. But when there is an attempt to impose its beliefs on the liberties of others, I draw the line.
What bothers me most is the hypocrisy lurking behind those beliefs. The central tenet of almost all religions is that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. But too often it is followed by a big fat IF. I am to love my neighbor only IF she looks like me, believes like me, and follows my God’s instructions. Sweet reason and compassion are deserted in favor of harsh dogma.
I’d like to see more reporters and editors bring these cruel, divisive beliefs out of the closet to be discussed openly and honestly. In a free secular society such as ours, that kind of dialogue is necessary, even if it makes religious followers uncomfortable. It is a useful, healthy thing to do, to prompt people to consider the often inhumane consequences of what they choose to believe.
In my view, the time is long past for walking gingerly around matters that so powerfully invade public policies and the laws of the land.

Lewis is a former associate dean at the Columbia Journalism School, and back in the Nixon heyday, she reported for Post-Newsweek TV stations and helped cover the Nixon impeachment proceedings for PBS. Is there something in the water at Columbia Journalism School? Former dean Joan Konner (also a PBS producer, for Bill Moyers) recently put together The Atheist Bible.