On NPR this morning, Steve Inskeep promised that we would back away from all the blathering news stories for a moment “to see a theme many of them share.” He explained further: “It's like we‘re backing away from a tree to see the forest.”

Ah.

That theme? That forest? “A conflict between core American values: religious freedom and equality.” 

According to a back-and-forth with reporter Tom Gjelten, the most recent example of this conflict is a potential “draft executive order” coming out of the Trump White House that would bar the government from punishing people or institutions who hate the gays. No, Gjelten didn’t say that. He said: “... who support marriage exclusively between one man and one woman.” 

So we‘re back to that. Ted Cruz is also offering up legislation on same. Being a reader of Orwell, he calls his bill “The First Amendment Defense Act.”

It’s a seven-minute piece. All about how to protect both equality and religious freedom.

And since, as Inskeep promised, we would get to see the forest, NPR backed up enough to see how this religious freedom argument factored in religions from all over the world. For example: What if a devout Muslim haberdasher didn't want to wait on an infidel?

No, sorry. NPR didn't mention Islam at all. 

Oh right. But it did mention, say, the Jewish baker who didn't want to serve Catholics. 

No. None of that. 

Hinduism? Buddhists? Taoists? Sikhs? Mormans? 

Yeah, no. It was exclusively about conservative Christians. 

Helluva forest, NPR.