Many Republicans have passed laws in a variety of states across the nation that allow people to discriminate based on their religious beliefs, according to the Huffington Post. They were passed under the guise of protecting religious freedom, but really the laws are just licenses for the Christian right to discriminate.
Contrary to popular belief, being a bigot is not protected by the First Amendment, according to Cornell University.
About two years ago, Michigan passed the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” This law allowed extremist Christians to deny service, employment, housing, and many other things to people that they don’t like because of their religious beliefs.
As if that wasn’t kooky enough, one GOP governor is taking it even further. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed a law that allows people to discriminate against many groups. Public and private employers can discriminate against atheists, gay people, people who have had premarital sex, and others.
Many states are passing these kinds of discriminatory laws. Now, Gov. Bryant is calling upon the Christian right across the state to martyr themselves for the cause. The governor even got an award from the Family Research Council, a hate group according to Southern Poverty Law Center, for “religious freedom” after he passed the discriminatory law.
Here is what Bryant had to say about it, according to Addicting Info:
“I remember in Sunday school, reading one of my favorite stories. It was about a giant, a bad giant, who came into a valley one day and he called to the Israelites, ‘Send down your champion and let me vanquish him.’ We were in that valley, but Tony Perkins was there with us. He was there as surely as Our Lord and Savior, as surely as the God of all gods stood there with us. And I can tell you how fortunate we are in this nation and in this organization to have a man of faith and leadership in Tony. God bless you for what you do.”
He further said:
“They don’t know that Christians have been persecuted throughout the ages. They don’t know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So if we are going to stand, now is the time and this is the place.”
Really people? Crucifixion? This is getting pretty ridiculous.
Watch just how ridiculous Religious Freedom Laws really are with this example from Michigan:
Featured image by Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
