You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. — Bertrand Russell
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As most people who follow politics know by now, conservative Christian lawmakers have begun proposing measures that would give businesses, churches or other faith-based organizations legal license to turn people away based on their religion or gender identity, yet have framed the discussion in terms of increasing “religious liberty.” This, in a nation that already has unfettered religious freedom and a church on nearly every corner.
What lawmakers in states like North Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi really want is a legal workaround that would allow for the discrimination against members of the LBGT community such that, after the nation was lifted up on a wave of equality after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, Republicans now seem hellbent on organizing a pushback against what they no doubt feel is affront to their “traditional” values. Of course, given the many disgraceful policies against black folks throughout the late 19th century and continuing through much of the 20th century — not even counting all the inhumanities that took place in the land where “all men are created equal” before and during the Civil War — one could make a strong case that racism and bigotry are as “traditional” in America as apple pie and baseball on Sundays.
Credit: Associated Press/Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announces he will veto religious liberty bill.
So when conservatives start talking about traditional family values in one breath and in another float proposals that would separate families and send parents thousands of miles away from their kids, prevent loving couples from enjoying the same protections and privileges under the law as everyone else, defund an organization that provides invaluable, affordable services to millions of women and men each year and gleefully acknowledge their belief in a book that gives us story after story of families being ripped apart or slaughtered outright at the behest of an angry god, I really have no idea what the hell they’re talking about.
Indeed, one can easily infer Republicans’ real intentions from what they have actually said on their not-so-thinly-veiled planned discrimination against the LGBT community. As a former Georgia resident, I’m not Gov. Nathan Deal’s biggest fan, but he deserves a lot credit, as I said on Twitter today, for sticking to his guns and vetoing his state’s so-called “religious liberty” bill that would allow faith-based organizations like churches, religious schools, conventions and others to deny services to those who do not share their “sincerely held religious belief” and then provide legal protection against lawsuits if and when denials take place.
State Sen. Josh McKoon called the current bill “significantly watered down” from a previous version that did more of what McKoon and his ilk were actually intending; that is, prevent businesses and other organizations from serving people who do not hold their beliefs. Here is McKoon:
I’m extremely disappointed. … (The bill) did not apply to businesses. I’m just very, very disappointed the governor would veto this modest protection for people of faith.
I sense a hint of victimhood in that last sentence. “People of faith” have a robust set of protections to ensure that they can, not only worship as they choose and congregate unhindered in every town and city in America, but churches enjoy a range of tax exemptions that actually place more financial responsibility and pressure on everyone else to make up the difference in lost revenues to support things like fire and police departments, schools and other public services.
But back to the bill. In addition to potentially allowing churches to deny services to people, perhaps most importantly, the legislation stipulates that no faith-based organizations will be required to hire people who do not agree with their worldview:
… no faith based organization shall be required to hire or retain as an employee any person whose religious beliefs or practices or lack of either are not in accord with the faith based organization’s sincerely held religious belief as demonstrated by practice, expression, or clearly articulated tenet of faith.
Nonetheless, as it stands now and if Deal’s decision is upended by a veto session, the legislation could pave the way for members of the LGBT community to face discrimination, overt or otherwise. Although the bill doesn’t come out and say that churches can screen potential employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity, which would be a clear violation of federal law, the implication is most certainly there, which is the context for this whole discussion in Georgia and states with similar legislation.
For his part, Deal said the bill sent the wrong message and did not reflect that Georgians were actually “warm, friendly and loving people:”
Our people work side by side without regard to the color of our skin, or the religion we adhere to. We are working to make life better for our families and our communities. That is the character of Georgia. I intend to do my part to keep it that way For that reason, I will veto HB 757.
Georgia’s bill was not solely about protecting religious liberty and everyone knows it, which is why a large number of large corporations, including Time Warner, Disney and Apple, admonished Deal to ax the bill, and the NFL and the NCAA have also “hinted,” as this AJC story worded it, that they could pass over the state as a location for championship games as a result of the bill.
While I realize we have little assurances of this, if Georgia lawmakers are smart, they will abandon the bill, and with it, the brazen affront to actual liberty, so that their state can avoid what is currently happening in North Carolina and Mississippi.
Religious freedom law have been around a long time going back to 1993 when President Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and proponents of the bill at the time were more focused on protecting believers from being forced into taking actions that went against their convictions or protecting elements of religious practice. As this article from Time outlines, the law said the federal government must have a “compelling interest” before it could infringe on religious liberty, and “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.” Perhaps the most conspicuous application of it has been in the case of Native Americans, some of whom have sought exemptions on religious grounds for the use peyote in traditional spiritual ceremonies.
The spirit of the federal law, then, is to actually protect the free exercise of religion, whereas the recent string of state laws are meant to restrict liberty among certain groups that conservatives would, if they could, more or less ignore completely except to keep passing more restrictions to effectively eviscerate them from civil society altogether.
Unfortunately for these traditionalists, the tide has already turned, and public sentiment is now largely against the kind of America that they want to create such that sooner or later, like the enfranchisement of women, desegregation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage and other victories that have charted our path on the moral compass, the United States is moving toward a more diverse and pluralistic society, and we are headed there with or without conservatives and the Republican Party.
That’s not a prediction or wishful thinking. The march of progress may be long, arduous and slow, but it is certain.
[Cover photo credit: David Goldman/AP]