Senate Bill 129 known as “Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” is one of the many similar bills being pushed through in states across the country by the GOP. Republicans have found a huge grass roots issue with “religious freedom,” ever since defeating gay marriage became their top priority. Many feel that the Georgia bill may eclipse all others in terms of damage down to women and children.
The bill states that:
“Laws neutral toward religion may burden religious exercise as surely as laws intended to interfere with religious exercise,” and the “government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” without a “compelling governmental interest” and by the “least restrictive means of achieving that compelling governmental interest.” It also defines religious exercise as a “practice or observance of religion, whether or not compelled by or central to a system of religious belief.”
In other words, if someone doesn’t want to serve a gay person at their restaurant because they believe being gay is an abomination then they don’t have to serve them. This isn’t just conjecture, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Josh McKoon fought against any anti-discrimination amendments being added to the final version of his bill.
As if this wasn’t horrible enough, Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, told The Daily Beast that even right wing district attorneys in two Georgia counties oppose the bill because it would give wife and child abusers a religious defense:
“We have found cases where people used their religious views as an excuse to impede an investigation into child endangerment and child abuse charges. They were not ultimately successful, but they did slow down the investigations.”
Here’s a video statement from former GA Attorney General Michael Bowers (R).
Christians often cite bible verses to justify their bigotry, abuse, and violence. This verse requires women to submit to their husbands:
“Ephesians 5:22-24: Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.”
There’s also this gem:
“1 Corinthians 14:34 – 35
34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.
35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”
They also quote scripture to justify child abuse:
“Proverbs 23:13-14: Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Punish him with the rod and save him from death.”
“Proverbs 13:24: Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”
If Georgia continues down this path, the people of the state will become subject to the equivalent of Sharia Law by right wing religious conservatives pushing their way of life onto others. This must be stopped hard and definitively by the American people across the nation.
President Obama should also address this growing infection which threatens our constitutional freedoms and liberties. We are living in very dangerous times where nut job conservative politicians are openly declaring war against any American who isn’t a white, Christian, male conservative.
In a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Ben Carson and Hillary Clinton are tied in a hypothetical match-up. Make no mistake, religious dictatorship is on the rise in America. Should America elect Ben Carson, we can expect more attacks on our constitutional freedoms from the religious right. It’s time to take these nuts very seriously because they are dead serious about changing our country.
Featured image courtesy of Scrape TV.
