Religious Freedom Vs. Freedom to Disciminate

Monday, the Indiana House of Representatives passed what they are calling the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," which like similar bills passed in other states, gives businesses protections against doing business with those who do not jive with their religious beliefs.  I wrote a post about it on Facebook (original post at the end), but I decided to flesh it out a bit more.

The growing number of these bills is a reaction to LBGT marriage equality that is now the law in a majority of states, and unless something truly shocking happens, will become the law of the land via the Supreme Court sometime this summer.  With marriage equality, there is the ghoulish specter of conservative bakers and florists being forced to serve gay couples, even though they are religiously against such marriages. Indeed, there have been issues, such as a baker in Oregon being successfully sued for refusing to cater to an LGBT couple, and there is even a local Indianapolis story about a baker doing the same, which did not lead to legal action but they did eventually close.  The conservative social war groups were seeing their giant cash cow issue of anti-marriage equality disappear before their eyes, and they quickly pivoted towards this idea that now people of faith are being discriminated against.

While I agree that an individual should not be forced to do something against their will,  unfortunately, I draw the line at businesses being able to deny services based upon a religious belief.  Private businesses that serve the public, should not be allowed to discriminate against any group of people based upon religion, race, sexual orientation, or any other reason.  My mind keeps going back to my old Political Science days and the idea of the Social Contract, which boiled down to the basic idea that we all sacrifice a little for the greater good of society and for the protections brought by government.  We all pay taxes into the general pot to support the government, and in turn, we are given roads, protection from police, fire, and other benefits of government in return.  Conversely, we provide services and acceptance to the public.  Plain and Simple.

While this is mostly being marketed as an anti-LGBT bill, it is obvious that this will end up a problem for other groups.  What if someone does not want to serve a Muslim? A Jew? Or someone who is significantly disabled?  What if someone, in the name of religion, only chooses to serve whites? How about a Christian paramedic refusing to treat someone who is gay?  It is that proverbial "slippery slope," which just leads to all sorts of ridiculousness.

The second part of this issue is that Legislatures have skewed incredibly to the conservative because that group is a guaranteed voting block. Liberals and minorities generally only vote in big elections, and since this has gone on for so long, the power has concentrated around the motivated conservative voter, and Republicans have successfully gerrymandered themselves into a position that is not easily assailable without years and years of dedicated voting by these groups that regularly stay home.  Of course, if creating districts were not in the hands of the people most likely to benefit, then everything would be a lot better, but again, that is not going to happen with the current power structure in place.  Arizona tried it, but it is now being challenged in the Supreme Court.

The bottom line is that we are going to continue to see these ridiculous and blatantly unconstitutional bills for a long time unless something is done at the state and local level to win back power from these powerful conservative groups.  This is a problem of the progressive's own making, and it is going to take a lot more than raising money to engage liberals, minorities, and Millennials.


Original Facebook Post -
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As most of you, I am disgusted by the License to Discriminate Bill that is sailing through our legislature.  It does not just harm LGBT Hoosiers, but it will absolutely allow discrimination based on sex, ethnicity, and even other religions.

However, I am aggravated because it does not have to be like this, and it did not happen overnight. This legislature does not represent all Hoosiers, just as much as it does not represent me.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of people do not care about politics until it directly effects them.  We have elections nearly every year, but we ignore them.  Then piece by piece, in the vacuum of our negligence, the government became a representative of narrow special interests that do not care for anyone but themselves, who feel that discrimination in the shadow of religion is their right.

We absolutely have a reason to be outraged, but we also need to accept our culpability in this sad state of affairs -- be it not voting, not encouraging our friends and families to vote, or just not keeping tabs on what is happening in your City, State, or Federal Government.  We have a super computer glued to our hand, and this is much more important than anyone trying to "break the internet."  It took time to get to this point, and it will take time to get out of it.  This legislature is not Indiana.  We are better than that, and it is up to us to prove it in EVERY election until it is fixed.