The Family Foundation (Virginia's Principal Hate Group) Launches "Religious Persecution" Meme

Hate Group Leader Victoria Cobb (in red) and "Bishop" E.W. Jackson

Having lost the larger battle against marriage equality in Virginia, The Family Foundation ("TFF"), Virginia's leading hate group - which one would hope soon will garner a formal hate group designation - is looking for ways to continue to denigrate gays and undermine civil law equality whenever and wherever possible.  The likely vehicle?  Claims that the "religious freedom" of anti-gay bigots is being trampled upon by forcing them to perform and/or recognize same sex marriages.    While Circuit Court Clerks have not been resigning rather than perform their legal obligations, be assured that TFF is busy seeking to foment discord.  In the process, Victoria Cobb and her fellow hate merchants twist and distort the meaning of religious freedom as contemplated by the Founding Fathers.  Here's how TFF would frame the situation to the simple minded and gullible:

There’s little doubt that, as individuals, churches, ministries and businesses are faced with choosing between their faith principles regarding human sexuality and operating in the public square, the sex-obsessed secular left will do all it can to use the power of government to impose its morality on the rest of us.

Anyone with a knowledge of Virginia history should know that in colonial days, the Anglican Church in Virginia was literally the established church.  It was supported by all Virginia taxpayers, enjoyed special rights and privileges to the exclusion of other religious denominations, and at one time, only marriages in Anglican churches were recognized and colonists were expected to attend Anglican services.  Non-Anglican church members were, in short, forced to support and conform to some of the beliefs of that church and ministers were licensed solely through that church.  It was this state supported and state enforced religion that eroded the right to worship as one might choose that the Founding Fathers from Virginia opposed.

Fast forward to November, 2014.  There are ZERO requirements that Virginians attend or support any particular denomination or church.  Indeed, one need not belong to or financially support any church whatsoever.  On the other hand, public employees are expected to perform their job functions in the context of the civil laws.  Never satisfied to be bound by the laws that are binding on others, the Christofascists at TFF are preparing to push TFF's political whores in the Republican Party of Virginia to enact legislation that would grant special rights to anti-gay religious extremists:

We are currently informing legislative leaders of the Attorney General’s advice to Clerks and asking that they take action in defense of clerks across Virginia who have a right, according to the words of Thomas Jefferson in our state Constitution, to “be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

TFF, of course, utterly misrepresents Jefferson's position on religious freedom and leaves out key language: "no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry. . . . "   But then again, TFF never lets the truth get in the way of its ugly agenda of religious oppression of all non-far right Christians.  I suspect, Jefferson would be repulsed were he to know that foul theocrats were twisting his writings to defend positions he would have abhorred.