The RFRA; Indiana, Colorado and the Left's War on Religion

Indiana was the 20th state in 20 years that has enacted their version of Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Arkansas will be the 21st. The RFRA was signed into Federal law by President Bill Clinton and for the last 20 years 20 states have been enacting their own version. The primary purpose of the RFRA was to address government from infringing on religious rights with a presumption of innocence on religious 1st amendment grounds; the question now does that include conflicts between government declarations of protected classes and religious beliefs. So far the business that have refused a service to LGBT, has only been their participating in wedding ceremonies that directly conflict with their Christian or Muslim religious beliefs; yes Muslim business have also been sued, but the press has completely ignored them; the idea that these business otherwise refuse to service LGBT has been a media lie. It is also interesting that the Bible is replete with examples of Christians and Jews that were martyred because they would not bend to laws that were contrary to their religious beliefs. Freedom of religion is like freedom of speech, once the impeding of the free exercise begins, it is no longer an inalienable right, but a right regulated by government; and the two are mutually exclusive.

Another point I see regarding the Indiana case is the left is using a poorly worded new law to say; 1) every conservative in Indiana is a homophobic 2) This is the reason you need to vote for Democrats. The truth is you would probably have to search far and wide in Indiana for a business that is so devoted to their religious beliefs that they would deny service of any kind; the reporter in Walkerton, Ind checked pretty much every restaurant within a 20 mile radius before she found Memories Pizza. And even then the owner never said they would deny any service. The owner, answering a question from the reporter about catering to a gay wedding said, while they have never been ask to cater a wedding of any kind, she could not involve her business in a wedding ceremony that goes against their religious beliefs. The owner further said she has nothing against homosexuals and would never dream of denying them service, it's the nature of a wedding ceremony that's the issue.

The same can be said for Azucar Bakery in Denver when it refused to make cakes with anti-gay messages on them. What was not widely reported is In 2012, a homosexual couple sued another Colorado Bakery after the owner refused to make a cake to celebrate their marriage."In point of fact, however, Phillips (owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop) had made it clear that he was happy to serve homosexuals, and he agreed to make the couple other baked goods, but he said his Christian beliefs prohibited him from making a cake for the gay wedding. “I told David and Charlie when they came in that I would sell them cookies and brownies and birthday cakes and shower cakes. I just don’t do the same-sex wedding cake,” he said. The incident at the Azucar bakery was in response to this prior case, as homosexual activist Bill Jack tracked down another Christian bakery and requested two Wedding cakes that were derogatory to the owner of Azucar Bakery's religious beliefs;

“I requested two cakes, each in the shape of an open Bible. On the first cake I requested on one page, ‘God hates sin — Psalm 45:7,’ and on the facing page, ‘Homosexuality is a detestable sin — Leviticus 18:22,’” Jack said.On the second cake I requested on one page, “God loves sinners,” and on the facing page, “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us – Romans 5:8.” I also requested a decoration of two groomsmen holding hands with a cross in the background with a ghostbusters symbol over it to illustrate that such a union is unacceptable biblically."

Christian activist Bill Jack has denounced a decision by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Regulatory Agencies, which found Azucar Bakery in Denver not guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a cake adorned with Bible quotes condemning sodomy. The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act “is being used to censor Christian business owners’ free speech and is being used to coerce them to participate in events that violate their consciences,” Jack complained. An administrative law judge ruled against him, and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission agreed.

So we are not talking about some wide spread homophobia; these incidents were carefully orchestrated to attack the religious beliefs of a very few devoutly religious restaurateurs for political purposes.