Religious Liberty, Bigotry and Gays

Here in Virginia, GOP homophobic extremist Del. Bob Marshall has introduced a bill that would give broad license to discriminate against gays based on claims of "religious freedom."  The bill is so extreme that discrimination is licensed if gays and/or same sex relationships “violate the religious or moral conviction of such person with respect to same-sex ‘marriage’ or homosexual behavior.”  Marshall's bill is no doubt backed by the hate merchants at The Family Foundation, Virginia's leading hate group. But Marshall's efforts are part of the Republican play book across the country where Republican legislators - yes, it is ALWAYS Republicans - are introducing "turn away the gays" bills under the smoke screen of "protecting religious liberty."  A column in the New York Times takes on these crude, bigoted efforts.  Here are excerpts:

I’VE been called many unpleasant things in my life, and I’ve deserved no small number of them. But I chafe at this latest label: A threat to your religious liberty.

I don’t mean me alone. I mean me and my evidently menacing kind: men who have romantic relationships with other men and maybe want to marry them, and women in analogous situations. According to many of the Americans who still cast judgment on us, our “I do” somehow tramples you, not merely running counter to your creed but running roughshod over it.

That’s absurd. And the deference that many politicians show to such thinking is an example not of religion getting the protection it must but of religious people getting a pass that isn’t warranted. It’s an illustration of religion’s favored status in a country that’s still working out this separation-of-church-and-state business and hasn’t yet gotten it quite right.

Equality is increasingly being enshrined into law, and one response from those opposed to it is that the law shouldn’t apply to them.  Why? Because it contradicts their religious beliefs, which they use as a fig leaf for intolerance.

[L]ast year, more than 10 states considered legislation that, to varying degree, blessed discrimination based on sexual orientation by people claiming that it was a right, a matter of religious liberty. . . . .  A Virginia lawmaker introduced this sort of legislation just a few weeks ago.

But this is only the beginning, especially with the contest for the Republican presidential nomination gathering steam.    Several likely candidates — Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee — get a special gleam in their eyes when they’re denigrating gays

Another probable contender, Jeb Bush . . . . said that America needed to take care to “safeguard religious liberty,” and there are several problems with that formulation.

For starters, it perpetuates confusion, some of which is cynically engineered, about the consequences of marriage-equality laws. They do not pertain to religious services or what happens in a church, temple or mosque; no clergy member will be compelled to preside over gay nuptials. Civil weddings are covered. That’s it.

But also, “religious liberty” sounds disturbingly like a dog whistle to the crowd that wants specified, codified exemption from anti-discrimination laws . . . . As these lamentations about religious liberty get tossed around, it’s worth remembering that racists have used the same argument to try to perpetuate segregation. 

Christian fundamentalists in this country are practiced at claiming marginalization and oppression. “They’re always saying they’re kept out of the public square, and that’s baloney,” said Marci Hamilton, a constitutional law expert and the author of “God vs. the Gavel.” “They’re all over the public square.”  They and their churches inject themselves into political debates while enjoying tax-exempt status. They get public support in questionable circumstances.

 

Would we be content to let a Muslim store owner who believes that a woman should always cover her hair refuse service to women who do not? Or a Mormon hairdresser who spurns coffee to turn away clients who saunter in with frappuccinos?  I doubt it. So why should a merchant whose version of Christianity condemns homosexuality get to exile gays and lesbians?

I respect people of faith.  . . . . And I support the right of people to believe what they do and say what they wish — in their pews, homes and hearts.  But outside of those places? You must put up with me, just as I put up with you.

Unlike the author of the column,  I don't respect most people of faith.  Certainly not religious fundamentalists who have chosen ignorance and bigotry over knowledge and tolerance to those who are different.   Rather than give them a license to discriminate, we need to restrict their rights in the public square and put religion back where it belongs: in homes and houses of worship and nowhere else.