#ncga: Mars Attacks! (Again, *SIGH*)
The last we heard from state Rep. Graig Meyer, a visitor from the planet Mars currently representing the Chapel Hill area in the NC House, he was bemoaning the fact that he is cursed to live life as a white man.
Now, he’s popped his head up again — whack-a-mole style — to vent his displeasure at the church-going Earthlings:
What’s got Graigy-boy all bent out of shape? It’s the spectre of one of those (*shudder*) “Religious Freedom Acts” being introduced in the legislature. You know. One of those things — like the Hobby Lobby case — that reminds politicians and bureaucrats that they absolutely cannot stomp all over someone’s religious faith.
Let’s take the gay marriage crowd, for instance. We heard all about how important it is for love, tolerance, equality and all that. If you’re a devout Christian who runs a catering service, try to refuse to cater a gay wedding. You’ll be picketed, possibly vandalized, slandered across the community, threatened with financial ruin, and dragged in front of government agencies to try and PROVE you are not a card-carrying Klansman. There will be no love, tolerance, or equality for you.
Most people will be glad to do business with anyone willing to pay the right price. Most everyone LOVES the color green.
It’s amazing how the peace, love, and understanding crowd wants to lump Christians in with the Klan and Hitler. In a minute, most Christians would bend over backwards to help a gay person in need. They’re viewed as people, not gay people. If you’re going to throw that adjective in front of the word people, you’re likely going to be challenging some very deeply held religious beliefs. (Don’t believe me? Check out the story of Sodom & Gomorrah in The Bible’s Book of Genesis.)
Respect is a two-way street. Government CANNOT make people like, love and / or respect each other. People have to work that out among themselves. Infringing on one group as a means of “protecting” another has nothing to do with justice or fairness or equality. If one person doesn’t want to do business with you, it shouldn’t be hard to find someone else who will.
The words “gay” and “homosexual” are not in my copy of the Bible’s Sodom & Gomorrah story, let alone in front of the word “people”. The NC legislature does not have enough Democrats to stop this sort of legislation. If Rep. Meyer wants to tell constituents how he would vote on an issue more power to him. Many legislators let folks guess how they would vote on an issue. I say good for him.
Those words are so twentieth century. There is that bit in the Sodom and Gommorah story about a mob of men threatening to gang rape a house full of men. And don’t forget the whole deal about God getting peeved about the stuff going down in S + G and destroying the whole place. I didn’t mean to turn this into a theology lesson.
My whole point in highlighting Graig’s tweet is to show how sad it is that we have to pass these laws to reinforce protections that were specifically placed in the Constitution at its drafting.
The First Amendment was meant to protect people from being harassed by the government while practicing their religious beliefs. England was going hard after Puritans and other religious minorities.
Modern-day tactics by government officials — forcing religious people to adapt their centuries old beliefs to modern-day political agendas — are no different than what the English did to the Puritans and other religious minorities in the 15th through 18th centuries.
It’s disturbing to see an elected official so dismissive of an effort to reinforce the specific protections in the Constitution and so eager to equate the practice of religion with bigotry.
The government has no business telling you WHO you HAVE to do business with.
It’s a freedom that, if anything, should be protected and defined more broadly… “religious” freedom is just one type of the more general individual right being trampled.
Free individuals can discriminate on whatever basis they want, religious or otherwise…. if people cant make choices I disagree with, it’s not actually “freedom”.
If a business owner wants to refuse catering a gay wedding because of his religious views, or because he doesnt like red heads or left-handed people or because he doesnt like pumpkins… I dont see how it matters whether or not I agree with his reasoning – it’s still the use of “his” property and labor at issue, and it’s still rightly “his” decision. He’s not infringing on anyone else’s rights by choosing to “not” interact or do commerce with them.
It’s not the government’s place to “protect me” from other people’s discrimination.
The only discrimination that should be prohibited is that done by “the government” – they operate on a different rule set, and are bound to treat all citizens equally, without regard to such things.
I’m not surprised this guy is wrong, again. He doesnt seem all that bright. That white guilt thing from a few months ago was crazy, I had forgotten how stupid it was. 🙂
Another Democrat attacking another aspect of the First Amendment? Just like Harry Reid? Thomas Jefferson must be turning over in his grave.
Maybe this weird dude ought to move to North Korea or Cuba or some similar place, or maybe back to Mars.
Some of the earliest settlers of the US came here for religious freedom. Religious freedom is protected in our constitution. Sexual practices are NOT.