Again, the LGBT community preferred to make truth a casualty as they lobbied hard to kill a simple update to already existing Arizona law. And they were joined by prominent Republicans, the NFL, and even Governor Jan Brewer who vetoed the bill on Friday purely out of political pressure and a lack of conviction. The bill was SB 1062, produced by the Arizona state legislature. Purportedly, the bill was an “anti-gay” bill that was designed to take America back to the days of Jim Crow by blatantly encroaching on the rights of same-sex couples. If you knew the history of existing law, and didn’t know the contents of this two-page update to existing law, then you would know the concerns expressed could not be further from the truth. And the fact that Republicans fell in line with the LGBT lobby shows you that these people are either completely spineless, can’t defend their position, or worse still, in on the whole LGBT agenda. Dispense with the truth, because they think most Americans are too apathetic to pursue the truth and couldn’t handle it if they knew it. Such is the state of affairs in America today, and when truth decays to the point it has, America cannot go on much longer based on its original ideals. It is a different world now.
To provide some history on the bill, it contains the exact same language as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, introduced by then US Congressman Chuck Schumer, a Democrat. It had support from Evangelicals, Jewish Groups, and even the ACLU. It passed unanimously in the House of Representatives and 97-3 in the US Senate. It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton eight months after it was introduced. In 1999 Arizona passed an identical bill, and this year minor clarifications were added to this already existing law. So up until this past week, there had been no controversy over this law in the past 21 years. So what has changed in the past 21 years? Well at least two things. Americans, in just a little over a generation, have completely turned away from truth, and is now hostile to religious expression, particularly Christian religious expression. The Democrats of twenty years ago are not the Democrats of today, but even the Democrats of twenty years ago have changed themselves. Their principles are ever changing and lacking in conviction. Second, the LGBT lobby has gained great momentum, and now they see they can make completely baseless charges and can get otherwise reasonably thinking people to go along with their program, even if it means throwing a well-meaning Arizona legislature under the bus. And when businesses and the NFL fall in line with this, it makes the whole thing even more chilling because these people should know better.
According to Cathi Herrod from the Center for Arizona Policy, a guest on the Mike Huckabee show who helped write SB 1062, a very small minority of people were able to make the bill about something it wasn’t, and the veto itself by Jan Brewer was about a bill that didn’t even exist. It was no step towards Jim Crow in the slightest, as LGBT groups charged. All the update to existing law did was to clarify and update the existing Religious Freedom Restoration Act to say that if the government wasn’t a party to the lawsuit, then the Religious Freedom Restoration Act would not apply. In other words, an individual or business could assert their religious freedom rights whether the government was or was not a party to the lawsuit. This was intended to help Little Sisters of the Poor, or businesses such as photographers, wedding cake bakers, florists, or Hobby Lobby, where the government is trying to force them to forego their religious beliefs no matter how deeply held.
Mike Huckabee used an example where if someone goes into a Kosher delicatessen and asks for bacon-wrapped shrimp for their wedding, the delicatessen owner would be protected by this update from participating in the wedding since the government couldn’t force him from doing something against his faith. This would, of course, also apply to a florist, cake maker, or photographer who would not want to participate in a same-sex marriage. This is wholly different from owning a store where you’re doing something purely transactional such as selling groceries, liquor, or gas. In that case, you’re simply providing a service and are in no way participating in the activity yourself. This law would be applicable to Christians, Jews, Muslims, or any particular religious belief. Additionally, there are safeguards in the bill such that if you assert your religious beliefs, you would still have to go to a court of law where they would do a balancing test so someone couldn’t just claim anything for their religious beliefs. Moreover, this works for a gay photographer that would not want to work for Herrod’s organization because that photographer doesn’t share the same values as this prolife, pro-family organization. So the bill works both ways, and now that photographer must accommodate Herrod whether they like it or not.
Indeed, we have crossed a precipice in American politics, which you will see clearly if you read the bill for yourself here. Truth is no longer valued, and neither is religious freedom. It is now about who can get their agenda through and it doesn’t matter if there is any truth to their agenda whatsoever. The LGBT lobby doesn’t give a damn about truth. They give a damn about getting what they want, and if truth has to be destroyed in the process, so be it. But they had better know that one day the shoe may be on the other foot, and when they need the truth it will no longer be available to them because they openly and wantonly participated in its demise. Enjoy the victory.
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