Jackboot politics

World Magazine ^ | 3/7/14 | Mindy Belz

[SoFloFreeper]

The fevered cry over Arizona’s proposed religious freedom bill is the noise of coming coercion

And to think it all started with peyote.

When members of the Native American Church got fired from their jobs for smoking the cactus, they sued. The Supreme Court sided with the employer. Congress stepped in, passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in 1993. In essence it provides a way to test government violations of the First Amendment’s free exercise of religion clause, and limits government coercion. Simply put, the government shouldn’t punish people for practicing their religion unless it has a good reason. The law doesn’t create a protected class of religious adherents; it only provides a way for them to take their religious conviction to court and be heard.

RFRA passed unanimously in the U.S. House and only three senators voted against it. President Bill Clinton signed it into law. After the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could make it binding on the federal government but not on states, a wave of state RFRA laws, sometimes called baby RFRAs, followed, creating a uniform standard for courts to apply in individual cases.

[SoFloFreeper]

Good analysis of what could be coming down the road if Christians and Constitutionalists don't start fighting back.

[afsnco]

Amen.

[SoFloFreeper]

I am sad this wasn’t discussed more...it is a good article.