By now you’ve probably heard that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who seemed to be such a promising Republican just a few years ago, wimped out in the face of pressure from homosexual activists and their “useful idiots,” vetoing a bill to protect religious freedom in Arizona.
Contrary to the extreme distortion and outright lies about this bill, it was not a bill promoting discrimination at all. In fact, the bill was specifically designed to protect citizens against the most egregious form of discrimination: government-backed and enforced discrimination, the kind Democrats have been known for which tell private businesses what they can and can’t do, and which leverage the power of government to persecute a particular segment of society.
SB 1062 was designed to prevent the kind of discrimination and government-backed persecution by bigots which has ALREADY been happening in the United States in places like Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and New Mexico, In these places and elsewhere, homosexual activists have been leveraging the power of the government to persecute Christians and Christian business owners who have religious convictions about participating in counterfeit marriage ceremonies.
The founders of our nation considered conscience and religious freedom to be of paramount importance. Not only did many of the earliest European settlers come here specifically to escape government persecution because of their religious faith, when the United States was created, the Founders considered religious liberty so important that they guaranteed it in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They also stated clearly how important these things were.
James Madison said “Government is instituted to protect property of every sort…[and] conscience is the most sacred of all property.”
John Adams said, “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If `Thou shalt not covet’ and `Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”
Thomas Jefferson said, “No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience.”
John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, said, “Security under our constitution is given to the rights of conscience.”
To anyone even remotely familiar with the U.S. Constitution, our founding principles, religious freedom, and the dynamics of this issue, it should have been a no-brainer. Someone should not be allowed to come into a business and force them to participate in an activity or action they consider immoral, or force them to support that activity with their labor. It should go without saying that they should not be allowed to leverage the power of government to force someone to violate their conscience and their religious convictions. Constitutional protections for religious freedom (and freedom in general) are being ignored by activists both in and out of government, and additional firewalls are needed to protect liberty.
Yet Governor Brewer, in vetoing this bill, has said that this is acceptable. It is now officially okay in Arizona for homosexual activists to force Christians and Christian business owners to support and participate in activities they consider morally abhorrent.
Of course, if Brewer (or anyone else with some backbone) had addressed this issue correctly, she would have told the NFL, Major League Baseball, Apple, Intel, Marriott Hotels, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, PetSmart, Yelp, Delta, American Airlines, the Hispanic National Bar Association and any other entity which threatened to withhold their business from Arizona if Brewer signed the bill into law…she should have told them what absolute and unmitigated hypocrites and bigots they were. After all, these companies were doing EXACTLY what they claim Christian businesses should not be able to do: withhold services due to moral conviction. These companies obviously have a warped and perverted sense of moral conviction, but it was nevertheless a moral judgment the NFL et al. made in threatening to withhold their business from Arizona.
But they heap contempt on the notion that a Christian business should be allowed to withhold its business from an activity it considers immoral.
This is the utter height of hypocrisy. How profoundly shameful that no one (that I’m aware of) has told them what complete hypocrites and bigots they all are.
But maybe I’ve been too hard on Arizona by calling it the hypocrisy and cowardice capital of the country. South Dakota is definitely in the running for that title.
After all, even with a Republican supermajority in the South Dakota Legislature (76% majority in the House and 80% in the Senate), South Dakota couldn’t even get a single one of three bills like this out of committee in the legislature.
Let me say that again: in a “Republican” supermajority, we couldn’t even get a bill to protect Christians out of committee, much less past one or both houses, to get it to the governor’s desk.
House Bill 1251: killed in a 12-0 “Republican” supermajority committee vote.
Senate Bill 66: killed in a 4-3 “Republican” supermajority committee vote.
Senate Bill 128: killed in a 5-2 “Republican” supermajority committee vote.
Yeah, the more I think about it, maybe South Dakota should be crowned the Hypocrisy and Cowardice Capital of the U.S.
With “Republicans” like this to guard freedom and decency, it’s no wonder there effectively IS no Democrat Party in South Dakota; the GOP is doing all their work for them.
And it’s no wonder the American people don’t trust the Republican Party anymore: they’ve proven they’re completely useless against the liberal agenda.
*** Bob Ellis *** Is a conservative writer and Life and Liberty News contributor
More commentary from Bob Ellis can be seen daily on the American Clarion
