"CONGRESS. SHALL. MAKE. NO. LAW."
"Free exercise" of speech, of the press, of religion, means this in practice: a whole lot of people deploying their speech, press, and religion as they see fit, with no government interference.
It means Ms Ministerial Wife has the right to print her divisive, hyperbolic and insulting views about the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in the newspaper, and it means the Baptist Church has a right to hire and fire at their discretion.
The "right to free speech" means speech without government censorship, not without real-world consequences.
This woman wanted her words to be "impactful," as they say, and lo and behold, they had their impact. She should be marveling that people read her and took her seriously.
She sure can't blame the Church for saying "You don't want to be associated with 'raging Shiite Baptists'? Fine. You're outta here."
Dear Mrs. Don-o,
Very well written.
“If ya’s don’ t’ink d’at da’ folks iz gonna read d’em woids, d’en don’ go and put d’em in dah paper!”
Personally, I think she has had a long-time ax to grind, and somebody handed her that proverbial ‘straw’.