What could possibly go wrong with this law as written?
Suppose my deeply held religious beliefs are that Christians are scum and fit only for sacrifice on the altar of the the Sun God. Who are these Christian scum to challenge my deeply held religious convictions?
What makes their religion with its false doctrine and imaginary god on a stick superior to the worship of the one true god whose presence we see daily and whose being our entire solar system revolves around?
There are no laws that would prevent me from worshiping the sun god. There aren't even laws to prevent me from thinking Christians and all the worshipers of all the other religions are inferior and fit only for sacrifice. There are laws that prevent me from not only putting my beliefs in to practice but there are laws that make it a hate crime for me to abuse, bully or harass members of other religions, in spite of my deeply held beliefs.
If I have a business I am not legally allowed to discriminate in hiring or employment based on religion nor in serving the public. If I am a landlord I am not legally permitted to discriminate on the basis of religion. No matter how much I want to due to my own deeply held religious convictions.
I sometime thing the exemption for religion is the shakiest of all the protected clauses. But I am a non-believer and wonder how anyone can possibly believe so fervently in such silly superstition.
That is the way things should be in America. The Founding Fathers recognized the horrors brought across Europe by religious based conflicts and acted to prevent that from occurring in the US.
Oddly enough though the neo-Christians claiming this right to assault, abuse and discriminate against LGBT/T people are not really Christians, they are Dominionists, a strange cult of Nazi like beliefs based on chosen people and master races that will rule (stop me if this sounds vaguely familiar) for a thousand years in a wonderful kingdom of peace once the majority of people including LGBT/T people, atheists, Jews and Muslims etc. are slaughtered during an apocalyptic blood bath.
I can't make up what the Republi-Nazis managed to pass in Michigan.
The passed a hate crimes bill that exempts these neo-Christians from all laws protecting LGBT/T kids from bullying and assault.
By Amy Sullivan
November 4, 2011
November 4, 2011
To understand what happened in Michigan, it’s important to know that social conservatives consider themselves the real victims. At the federal level, they unsuccessfully fought for the inclusion of a provision protecting religious freedom when Congress expanded the definition of a hate crime to include crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation. They also strongly oppose legislation that would prevent discrimination against gay individuals in the workplace, charging that such a law would endanger religious freedom. A report on the Christian Broadcasting Network outlined one such concern: “The special protections for gay and transgendered teachers will make it extremely difficult for [public school] districts that might want to remove them from the classroom.”
In other words, social conservatives believe that efforts to protect gays from assault, discrimination or bullying impinge on their religious freedom to express and act on their belief that homosexuality is an abomination. That’s stating it harshly, but it is the underlying belief.
This belief, however, relies on a warped understanding of religious liberty. Freedom of religious expression doesn’t give someone the right to kick the crap out of a gay kid or to verbally torment her. It doesn’t give someone the right to fire a gay employee instead of dealing with the potential discomfort of working with him.
It’s also a highly selective conception of religious liberty. The same religious conservatives who applaud the religious exemption in Michigan’s anti-bullying bill would be appalled if it protected a Muslim student in Dearborn who defended bullying a Christian classmate by saying he considered her an infidel.
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