Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Confused About The Furor Over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Law? Read These 9 Things





◼ With the cacophonous debate on both sides of this issue, it’s hard to know what the heck is actually going on. So here are the nine things you need to know about Indiana’s new religious freedom law. - Casey Harper/Daily Caller

1. The law is based on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which says that the government “may substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” only “in the furtherance of a compelling government interest” and using “the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest.” The Indiana law is not specifically targeted at gay people and does not even mention sexuality, but gay rights advocates say the law’s language is ripe for abuse.

2. This law is not a get out of jail free card for “discriminators.” ...

3. In the approximately 20 years RFRA has been federal law, not a single person has successfully used RFRA to circumvent civil rights laws. Some people have tried and failed.

4. This law already exists in different forms at the federal level and in 19 states across the country. Those laws passed without nearly the same hullabaloo.

5. A large reason for the controversy now is that, as American Civil Liberties Union Director Jane Henegar puts it, many believe “the bill was introduced as a backlash reaction to achieving marriage equality for same-sex couples in Indiana.” The previous RFRA laws passed before gay marriage was such an issue....

6. Indiana’s RFRA law is different in one large way. The law has more explicit language that allows businesses or individuals to invoke RFRA in civil disputes. ...

7. Indiana does not have a law explicitly prohibiting discrimination against gay people. Many other states do.

8. This is a largely symbolic fight that will have little effect on gay discrimination cases in Indiana, of which there are few.

9. There is a growing list of companies, governments and celebrities vowing to boycott the state because of the law.... read the whole article at The Daily Caller





◼ An amusing struggle as the press tries to explain why RFRA is different from all those other laws - HotAir
It took some prodding from conservative outlets, but the media has at long last begun to grudgingly admit that virtually identical laws are on the books in nearly two dozen other states and on the federal level, many bearing the signatures of Democrats. This has left liberal opponents sputtering and side stepping in their attempts to say, well yeah, but this is way worse because… Republicans!

...Hey! When we passed this thing you never said it was going to be used to protect Christians!!...



◼ "This protest movement against Indiana’s Religious-Freedom Restoration Act has gotten completely out of hand. The outrage is based on lies, misinformation, and propaganda about things that are not even in the law." - Paula Bollard/PjMedia


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