Posted on 04/07/2015 7:46:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The battles in Arkansas and Indiana over two bogus “religious freedom” bills, that were thinly disguised vehicles for anti-LGBT discrimination, exposed a major rift within the Republican Party. It came down to Big Bible vs. Big Business – and the concerns of social conservatives were swiftly dropped like a bad stock. (* “Big Bible” does not mean ALL Christians. Just the intolerant ones who reject separation of church and state and have shamelessly built a lucrative industry distorting the Bible to justify discrimination)
With major corporations like Wal-Mart and Apple loudly condemning these bills, Republican lawmakers quickly retreated. Amended bills were passed that explicitly banned these controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Acts from being used to discriminate based on sexual orientation. This, of course, undermined their original purpose, which was to allow business owners to cite their faith to deny services to LGBT people. (and anyone else they morally objected to)
If this weren’t already a crushing defeat, Southern Voice reported today that conservative Republican Gov. Nathan Deal endorsed a “religious freedom bill for Georgia with an explicit anti-discrimination clause. This is a game changing loss for “Big Bible,” which had made these vindictive bills the centerpiece of their post-gay marriage strategy. The idea was that if gay marriage was legal, fundamentalist Christians could cite their faith to opt out of laws everyone else had to follow.
Incensed about their misfortune, the extremists attacked the Fortune 500. The most outlandish assault came from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who said, “The Fortune 500 is running shamelessly to endorse the radical gay marriage agenda over religious liberty.”
Right wing “talking head case” Glenn Beck, went so far as say that Christians might end up in concentration camps. A prediction that may come true if a Christian plans to pitch a tent in Yellowstone Park and concentrate while roasting marshmallows by a campfire.
Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins wailed: “You want to roll back religious freedom? Goodbye Wal-Mart, hello neighborhood grocery.”
What neighborhood grocery stores? With the help of Perkins, Wal-Mart put these mom and pop shops out of business long ago. The only ones that remain are liberal Granola Marts in big cities. And I can’t imagine Tony Perkins slithering down the aisles, his little cart maneuvering around hippies, looking for organic tofu.
It’s poetic justice that businessmen are now bouncing social conservatives, who were duped into providing Republicans the votes to install the corporate worshipping Robert’s Court. These rubes bought the insincere rhetoric – from “job creators” to “no taxes” – and now they are throwing tantrums because corporate America has too much power. It did not take a genius to figure out that enabling an entity where profit reigned supreme would backfire in a rapidly changing age where anti-LGBT bigotry no longer pays.
Social conservatives also have a hypocrisy problem. On one hand they are proposing that government step in and pass laws to protect fundamentalist Christians from gays who want to buy wedding cakes. But on the other hand, they are saying that government protections against discrimination are not the solution for LGBT people. In the immortal words of Indiana’s disgraced Gov. Mike Pence: The gays can rely not on laws, but “Hoosier Hospitality.” (Yeah, he actually said that)
The sad fact is that 29 states don’t have laws to protect LGBT people from discrimination. Gay marriage is legalized in 37 states. This means that in many places a gay person can marry his or her partner, but get canned for placing a wedding photo on the office desk.
Another lie peddled by Big Bible is that gays are forcing Christian business owners to “participate” in their weddings. This is not true.
Unless one is invited to a wedding as a guest or directly involved in the actual ceremony, one is not a participant. These business owners are mere vendors who falsely portray themselves as participants so they can justify sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong and expressing moral disapproval.
A florist or baker providing a product for a gay wedding is no more participating in that event than a hotdog vendor at Wrigley Field is playing in the game. A gay hotel clerk registering bigots at the Omni Shoreham hotel for the Values Voter Summit is not “participating” in that noxious event. He or she is simply doing his or her job.
The Human Right’s Campaign’s Chad Griffin summed it up: “This historic week made one thing clear. There is a new American coalition for equality emerging. It crosses party lines. It touches all sectors of society – from businesses to faith leaders, to elected officials. It is fundamentally reshaping our national politics. And no state legislator peddling a two-bit piece of bigoted legislation is going to fly in our country anymore.”
Big Bible better start to pray – because its days are numbered where it can prey on LGBT people without consequences.
*****
Wayne Besen is a columnist and author of the book “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.”
Right. Because no one can turn from sin. Just stay there and die.
Ezekiel 18
30b... Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
Good idea, that......the God who called homosexuality an abomination and bombed out whole cities because of it is listening. And judging.
The ghey clerk doesn't own the business and must do as he's told.
If the hotel was asked to host an event it took issue with, they'd probably do their best to reject the inquiry.
Biker groups and tattoo artists hold conventions and get togethers. Swingers and wife swappers do. So do punk rockers (who rent out ballrooms for live music and partying *). So do Satanists. So do computer hackers. These are among the groups who find they are not always welcome.
Somehow homosexual drama queens think everything is always about their perverted lifestyles alone and no one else faces the word NO.
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*
Due to some outrageous behavior from last year’s Shakedown, this year’s festival was no longer in a casino ballroom, and was now way off the Strip in an old theatre called the Huntridge. Last year’s show was at the Gold Coast casino, and as mentioned, the attendees and bands went so apparently nuts, there were reports of repeated false fire alarms, smashed statues, vandalized fountains, "intimidated gamblers", and even open blow jobs in the elevators while senior citizens rode along right beside the ******* *** ******** ** **** ****. That said and done, Shakedown got kicked out on its *** and had to relocate.
(http://www.thesmugglers.com/vegas_shakedown.htm)
The bill in Indiana didn’t allow you to discriminate against anybody....if you were accused of discrimination, it allowed you to use religious objections as a defense IN COURT...you still had to win your point of view there.
If he now thinks that God is there, did he receive enlightening biblical teachings from a religious figure? Is this a personal growth unrelated to religion? Where did he get this notion that he held that God disapproved of same sex marriage? Did it come from his mentor Jeremiah Wright? Does Jeremiah Wright say to the press that he opposed same sex marriage? Does he still oppose same sex marriage? Does he believe that Barack Obama has left the fold?
And don’t think for a moment that the crowds along the parade route of Houston’s gay pride parade (now moved to downtown) didn’t exhibit the same bad behavior (and public sex). the stories bartenders (at non-gay bars) told bear this out.
PFL
Gay donors threatened to withhold their political donations until he “evolved”
He told them in “private” that he’d have to shuck and jive to appeal to the voters in flyover country (black church going Democrats) who still ‘cling to religion’.
He already telegraphed his support even if he had to publicly deny it.
Jeremiah Wright said (after the 2008 election) that he understood that President Obama would have to distance himself from the reverend and that he’d have to tell some lies to the public about his true beliefs and goals. Wright didn’t blame him. By any means necessary.
Stalinists lie. ALWAYS
Is the author homosexual?
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