Indiana Senate Bill 101, titled the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,[1] is a law that mandates that religious liberty of individuals and corporations can only be limited by the “least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest.”[2] The bill has been controversial. Opponents of the law claim that is targeted against LGBT people and other groups. The bill is similar to the controversial Arizona SB 1062 vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer in 2014, which expanded Arizona’s existing RFRA to include corporations.[3][4]
The bill was approved by a vote of 40-10[5] and on March 26, 2015, Mike Pence signed SB 101 into law.[6] The law’s signing was met with widespread criticism by such organizations as the NCAA, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, the gamer convention Gen Con, and the Disciples of Christ. Technology company Salesforce said it would halt its plans to expand in the state.
Pence is speaking now. He started off his speech by comparing himself to Clinton. What a nerve. He has probably spent a good portion of his life spitting on Bill Clinton.
Pence continues to make excuses. He says he and the general assembly will craft legislation that makes it clear that businesses don’t deny services to anyone. Then why have the law?
Meanwhile, Gov. McAuliffe has told Indiana corporations to come to Virginia. I like a guy that sees opportunity.
I remain on record as pro-sodomy, by the way. Everyone should do it once in a while I think.
TMI
And something on the order of 47% of married Christians agree with me – http://sexwithinmarriage.com/2014/06/christians-anal-sex-anal-play/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/debate-over-religious-freedom-bills-becomes-an-issue-in-va-house-race/2015/04/01/430c3c52-d8ae-11e4-ba28-f2a685dc7f89_story.html
@Rick Bentley
Mr. Bentley, let me assure you with all honesty and sincerity that I am no longer reading your posts beyond the blog handle. I believe you have already used up your quota of Christophobia on this thread as far as I am concerned. No further elucidation of your personal hatred is needed, thank you. But you do have my gratitude for bringing us notice of those on-line donations to the Indiana family in question. It does show one and all that the family is not alone out there.
I have a reverse question mark image somewhere …. But not now when I need it
Well, I did look at that one, Mr. Bentley. Heh, heh, does the thought of anal sex with another homme cause a warm thrill to run down your leg? B or T, I presume?
I have heard people interpret Paul’s objections to gay sex as objecting to the sexual orgies that were part of contemporary idol worship — worship that did not include women, btw. Thus Paul doesn’t really proscribe the type of sex acceptable within marriages but instead seems to restrict sex to serially monogamous relations although his preference is a single chaste lifestyle.
The social wedge topic of the day for Jesus was whether divorce was permitted (since it was part of the Mosaic law.) He escaped the political trap by not decreeing that Moses was wrong but by saying that what God intended in the Garden of Eden was damaged by sin and it affected not only our relationship with God, but also with each other. If evangelical churches can tolerate 50% divorce and remarriage rate (higher than the general public) claiming that reconciliation with God does not require reconciling with your ex-spouse, then there is room, in a generation or two, for churches to bless gay unions even if they do restrict the matrimony sacrament to hetero couples.
Meanwhile the cry that religious freedom must include the right to use government power to socially ostracize gays and people of other religions makes a mockery of the Free Exercise clause. The requirement that gays not be treated as second class citizens under the law does not prevent anyone from believing that gays are inferior. They can even act out their belief in public (perhaps with a sign: no shirt, no shoes, no gays, no lesbians!) as long as they do not use government resources (such as corporate structure that shields owners from liability for that speech) to amplify their bigotry.
Jess Cooley seems to be the kind of radical fool this country has been producing of late. And it is not just limited to the left wingnuts when it comes to physical threats.
BTW, it turns out that Memories Pizza did not pipe up on its own about the RFRA and the owners thoughts on catering a same-sex wedding. It appears that some ditzy rookie of a reporter from a local TV station decided to walk in on them out of the blue and pose questions. Somebody in the place gave an honest answer to a hypothetical question. The story was written up as if the little pizzeria was a den of active discrimination in Indiana. Now the owners are in hiding. That ditzy rookie of a reporter and her station bosses come from the same hate sewer as the golf coach — which is nothing new for the media in this country. Yes, shame, shame, and shame again.
Wouldn’t you think the appropriate answer would be that they don’t cater weddings, they are a pizza joint?
Seriously, who puts a bride and groom on a pizza?
Why do you blame America for the foolishness of a few?
Dooley. Cooley. Whatever.
You can donate money to Memories Pizza. Over $500,000 collected – I’m sure they appreciate the support –
Gofundme.com
So why is anyone feeling sorry for them? Some golf instructor is welcome to threaten to beat the snot out of me. I will close down this blog and you guys can send money. Lots of it!!!
I am sitting here thinking up offensive things to say as we speak.
Well, if corporations are virtual people who can have religious convictions and use those convictions to play mean girls and shun others because, well they are different and bound for hell, then an appropriate response is for real people who disagree to kill that corporation infidel in response. That is how differences in religion were handled throughout history and anti-gay is all about being anti-progressive, right?
Corporations have speech and religious rights but they don’t have a right to life (unless they are too big to fail) because that would be socialism. Socialism==Liberalism and anti-gay is anti-liberal and thus anti-socialism. So no social conservative would be so socialistic and expect government to protect corporations from murder. So nothing wrong with people rising up and killing those evil corporate savages. It’s the law of the capitalistic jungle. The death of Memories Pizza is natural and good.
[SCOTUS is going to have to rethink that Citizens United and Hobby Lobby rulings. When a line of thinking (i.e. corporations are people) so quickly leads to absurdity it is time to pitch that legal framework and start anew.]
All’s well that ends well. It appears that both Indiana and Arkansas quickly climbed down. The rapidity of the retreat convinces me that the original laws were electoral dog-whistles (probably not the best metaphor given that the frequency and tone of the message was well within the hearing range of the entire human species), and that, once the larger implications of the statutes started getting bruited about, everyone got sober and went back to a vanilla federal RFRA mirror.
My understanding from a quick read of this morning’s papers is that Indiana actually went beyond stock RFRA language in the other direction and expressly disclaimed a right to boycott commerce on religious grounds with a wide class of enumerated groups and individuals (including those defined by sexual orientation) and also protected local anti-discriminatory ordinances.
Yea. those who tried to make it seem innocuous were just bs-ing the rest of us.
Imagine how the press would be reacting if the pizza place had been attacked this way because the owner stated she was gay.
The restaurant owner is the victim. She had to close due to threats and organized harassment.
ZZZZZZZ-Moon, please wake me if Wolve says something coherent…
…because THAT would be a real eye-opener!
Memories pizza donations now up to $715k.
wow – so off topic.
It is amazing how far off the thinking here is with regards to what the law is about.
The law, as written, does not force a person/company/other into providing any service that they already do not offer. Go ask Costco to put ‘F U’ on a birthday cake – they will not do it. They do not need a law to protect themselves from not doing it. What this law does however is it does allow a vendor to say that they are not going to sell a service to you because….. X Reason is my religious belief.
In history religion has been used to explain/justify –
Killing
segregation
discrimination
maiming
war
denying housing to (blacks, single’s, gay, etc)
Wait until the first Jihadist wants to stand behind this law to explain himself.
It actually sounds like a law laden with unintended consequences.
Pat, you have made important points here.
you left off rape, pedophilia, theft, and ethnic cleansing.
@Rick Bentley
yes, missed the ethnic cleansing…big one.
and polygamy, human and pet sacrifice, denial of education, the list goes on.
allenbwest.com/2015/04/heres-exactly-why-the-religious-freedom-act-is-so-important/
Allen West is a totally offensive human being.
“this ruckus is much ado about nothing — other than a certain group that seeks to impose its lifestyle and behavioral choice upon others.”
That’s right. The group, of course, is right-wing Christians.
According to TMZ, Memories Pizza’s gofundme is up to $842,000.
There’s a market in this country for stories of good Christian folk being bullied by liberals and gays – of God being suppressed by the unrelenting homosexual cabal. It’s apparently a fairly lucrative market. Moreso than selling pizzas.
Hey, i forgot to mention this. I’m starting to see Wolve’s point about all this.
I went out walking today and two guys – holding hands – asked me if I would take a picture of them kissing. I declined. They got angry and threatened to burn my house down. They also said they were going to find my facebook page and post nasty things to it if I left it open to the general public.
I’ve been living in fear since. I’m peeking behind closed curtains right now. I don’t plan to go in to work for several weeks.
I’ve started a gofundme page in case anyone wants to help me fight my battle for religious freedom. I’ll be hosting a kickoff event later today; donors who contribute $100 or more are welcome to some free Chick-Fil-A, Welch’s grape juice, and Coors beer.
Where can we donate?
I think Memory Pizza is running a scam. Do we know that this golf coach really even exists?
Rick, I hope you are safe from marauding gangs of killer homosexuals, just looking for those who have dissed them.
I’m living in fear. They might burn my house down, they might shoot me dead, but what i’m really afraid of is that they’re going to break in in the middle of the night and rape me.
Donations page – for memories Pizza, I haven’t set mine up yet – is at http://www.gofundme.com/MemoriesPizza
My own personal news: I got my very first invitation to a same sex wedding. Congratulations Kelvin and John. Memorial Day Weekend. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.