Religious freedom is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans. It’s so important that we protect it in our state and federal constitutions.

But cynical politicians are radically redefining that freedom to mean something it never has: the right to use religion to discriminate and to impose one’s personal religious beliefs on others.

We see this in a new campaign across the country to pass special laws that supporters claim are necessary to protect religious liberty. Texas lawmakers failed to pass nearly a dozen such bills in 2015, but legislative leaders have made clear that they will try again next year.

Such legislation would allow businesses and individuals to use religion to refuse to obey laws they don’t like but that everyone else must follow. And it would put at risk another fundamental principle: that everyone in America is equal under the law.

A primary motivation for these religious refusal bills has been opposition to equality for gay and transgender Americans, including the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.

Proponents insist that they have the right, because of their religious beliefs, to fire or refuse to serve people simply because of who they are or whom they love. They even argue that government officials who have religious objections to same-sex marriage have a right to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples — in other words, to refuse to do the jobs taxpayers pay them to do.

Remember that when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was not unusual to hear some use religion to justify racial and gender discrimination.

But it would be shocking today if a businessperson who belonged to a religious sect that preaches white supremacy used his religious beliefs to fire or refuse service to people simply because of their race. Our courts and most Americans simply wouldn’t stand for it.

Our laws similarly bar discrimination on the basis of gender, even for religious reasons. A store manager doesn’t have the right, for example, to fire a woman simply because his religion teaches that women shouldn’t work outside the home or alongside men.

The long-established principle in America is that those who choose to do business in the public marketplace must treat everyone equally.

This principle doesn’t require business owners to change their religious beliefs or how they live their personal lives. It simply acknowledges that we live in a diverse society that respects equal treatment and civility in the public square.

But proponents of religious refusal laws want to turn the clock back to an earlier, darker time in our nation’s history.

Moreover, don’t believe for a second that discrimination will be limited just to gay and transgender people. Once you open the door to discrimination against one group of people, everyone is vulnerable.

For example, what happens when government officials decide, based on their personal religious beliefs, to refuse issuing marriage licenses to people who have been divorced or who lived together before their wedding?

Should we look the other way if an employer fires a single mother because he believes bearing children out of wedlock is a sin?

Even more worrisome, if we throw open the door to religious refusals, be prepared for a full-out assault on widely accepted anti-discrimination protections in state and federal civil rights laws as well.

Proponents of religious refusal laws also won’t stop at objecting to anti-discrimination protections. They will also seek the right to pick and choose which other laws and public policies they will obey.

In fact, they already argue that employers who believe using birth control is a sin should have the right to impose their beliefs on workers by denying coverage for contraception in their health insurance plans.

If the real motivation here is to protect religious liberty, religious refusal laws are unnecessary. In 1999, the Texas Legislature passed — by a large, bipartisan majority — the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That law carefully balances religious liberty and anti-discrimination protections and has worked well for 17 years.

Moreover, our federal and state constitutions already protect the right of clergy and houses of worship from being forced to preside over, celebrate or host marriages that contradict their religious teachings.

But not only are religious refusal laws unnecessary, their passage also carries serious economic consequences.

Businesses, workers and tourists who oppose discrimination are increasingly wary of states that are seen as intolerant and unwelcoming. The severe economic backlashes to religious refusal laws in states such as Indiana and North Carolina have made that clear.

Let’s be clear about what is at stake here. In America, we all have the right to equal treatment under the law. But politicians are undermining this basic constitutional principle by twisting the meaning of another, religious liberty.

Just last month, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, vetoed a religious refusal bill in his state.

“We do not have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia,” Gov. Deal said.

He’s right. And that’s also true in Texas.

Religious liberty has never meant the right to use religion to discriminate, to pick and choose which laws one will obey, or to impose one’s personal religious beliefs on others.

We shouldn’t change that now.

Kathy Miller is president of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonpartisan religious liberties watchdog.