Frederick Clarkson of Political Research Associates warns that the Christian Right, the U.S. Catholic bishops, and a rapidly strengthening network of allied organizations are "intensifying their campaign to carve out arenas of public life where religious institutions, individuals, and even businesses may evade civil rights and labor laws in the name of religious liberty."

    This alliance is working to create "zones of legal exemption," according to Clarkson, by building on the success of high-profile religious freedom cases like Hobby Lobby, "religifying" organizations so they qualify for ministerial exemptions, passing state-level Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs), advocating for new individual exemptions like that sought by [Kim] Davis from issuing same-sex marriage licenses, and making religious liberty claims in local zoning cases under the Religious Land Use Institutionalized Persons Act.

Miller continues:

The battle to expand the scope of religious liberty exemptions has been especially damaging to reproductive rights, according to a new analysis by Adam Sonfield of the Guttmacher Institute. From the proliferation of "conscience clauses" that allow individuals and institutions to refuse to provide reproductive health care, to the continued battle over the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, to refusal of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide reproductive health services to victims of trafficking and refugees under federal contracts, women's health care has been a particular target of religious liberty exemptions.

    Sonfield writes that as the concept of religious liberty has become "highly politicized and distorted," the "concept of balancing competing rights, responsibilities and needs seems to have given way to religious liberty trumping all other concerns." He says social conservatives are now "using laws like RFRA to erode rights, programs and services that they wish to eliminate entirely but have been unable to do so directly through other means."

    Both Clarkson and Sonfield note that the successful expansion of religious liberty claims is being driven by a distorted notion of religious freedom. Where traditionally religious freedom was defined as an individual's free exercise of religion and conscience, it's now being redefined as the right to discriminate and impose a conservative social order in the name of religion.

Finally, progressive journalist Bill Berkowitz, also writing at Religion Dispatches, interviewed me about the report. Here is a sample:

Bill Berkowitz: Why did you write When Exemption is the Rule?

    Frederick Clarkson: Most everyone to the left of the religious right is behind the curve on one of the central issues of our time: religious freedom. Six years ago, most people did not see the storm clouds on the horizon as the Christian Right mounted a major effort to redefine religious freedom.

    Conservative evangelical leaders working in close--and I think underappreciated--alliance with leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have reconfigured the Christian Right to wage the culture wars of the 21st century. Religious freedom is central to their strategy. I would go so far as to say that no understanding of the Christian Right is complete or even accurate without a profound grasp of their interrelated three-part formula of life, marriage, and religious freedom.

How does your report fit into today's political landscape?

    Over the years, the Christian Right has evolved, shaping events and not merely reacting to them. Conservatives have consistently responded to changing social roles and increasing efforts at equality for the historically oppressed, including women, racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ people.

    But the Christian Right also has a theocratic vision that is not merely reactive. It is proactive, and has deep roots in history and, in my view, it is gathering strength and momentum. While many people across a wide swath of public life--including journalists, scholars, and political activists--have delighted in repeatedly writing the Christian Right's obituary, the theocratic coalition and the way it carries out its politics has dynamically evolved.

How has the religious right evolved over the years?

    Conservative Christianity has systematically transformed itself into a formidable 21st century theocratic political movement, developing an electoral capacity that is broad and deep, even as organizations and leaders come and go.

    Perhaps most significantly, conservative Catholics and evangelicals have sufficiently set aside their historic animosities to cobble together one of the most formidable political movements our country has seen. Although making political prognostications is always dicey, it seems likely that this elections season will demonstrate this in ways that will make most of us wonder what went wrong. The other dimension of the success of the Christian Right is the failure of every sector to its left, including moderate Republicans, to adequately address these changes and the challenges they bring to constitutional democracy and our best aspirations for a more just society.

OK.  I can't quite say nothing about the report itself.  The opening paragraph reads.  

Religious freedom is a central issue of our time. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution knew that just because they, the leading politicians of their day, hammered out some remarkable foundational language, that did not mean that it would be a settled matter. History and current events have proved them out.

The Christian Right has been smart about gulling us into complacency.  I think that for us to be successful in sustaining and advancing democratic values in our time, we need to drink deep from the well of the best of our history, culture and constitutional aspirations.   And there is hardly a better time than Religious Freedom Week to connect with that wellspring of democratic values and take that conversation forward.