It is astonishing, but the extremist christian fundamentalists are
basing their punitive power on the religious freedom guarantee in the
First Amendment; with Supreme Court approval.…
There has been no dearth of news stories, reports,
and commentary over the past few months on the epidemic of racists,
whether in law enforcement or the general population, either inflicting
or attempting to inflict, punishment on African Americans for being
African Americans. As noted, “there are certain groups
who are adamant that as superior human beings they have authority to
mete out punishment for violations of their beliefs that are usually
borne of religion.”
Despite protections in the U.S. Constitution and
federal and state laws, the past six years have seen an increase in
religious fundamentalists claim they have theocratic authority to punish
women, gays, and any American unwilling to comply with their theocratic
edicts. It is apparent that Americans have no more constitutional
protections from religious tyranny than unarmed African Americans have
from racist cops shooting them with impunity. It is astonishing, but the
extremist christian fundamentalists are basing their punitive power on
the religious freedom guarantee in the First Amendment; with Supreme
Court approval.
Before becoming one the Supreme Court’s papal-5 imposing the vatican’s edicts in the Humanae Vitae
on America’s women, Justice Antonin Scalia firmly believed the
Constitution’s Framers did not define “religious freedom” as the right
to violate state or federal laws. In fact, in writing for the majority
in
Employment Division v. Smith,
Scalia said that the First Amendment freedom of religion does not allow
individuals to break the law: he said, “We have never held that an
individual’s beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid
law prohibiting conduct that the state is free to regulate.” He said it
would be “courting anarchy” to create exceptions every time a religious
group claims that a law infringes on its religious freedom.
Around the nation over the past few years, repugicans have not “courted anarchy” in creating religious exceptions
to established constitutional laws, they attempted to impose evangelical
tyranny under the guise of “religious freedom.” There has been so much
attention on trigger-happy cops exercising their racist freedom to shoot
and kill unarmed African Americans recently that pundits overlooked
biblical repugicans exercising religious freedom to impose theocracy on
Michigan residents.
The latest religious tyranny is Michigan House Bill
5958,
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that legalizes a christian
extremist’s religious freedom to discriminate, among other atrocities
in an alleged civilized society. But even that description understates
the abomination about to be forced on Michigan residents as a prelude to
the theocracy about to be unleashed on America. The law makes it legal
to refuse service, deny employment, housing, and violate other citizens’
rights, any rights, if a theocrat claims it violates their religious
freedom and objects on religious grounds. The bill’s proponents cried
foul and claimed H.B. 5958 is not a “license to discriminate,” but a
Democratic representative proved it is that and much more.
The Democratic representative, Jeff Irwin, was
concerned the RFRA was more than protecting religious freedom so he
introduced an amendment to the legislation that explicitly stated that
RFRA would not permit evangelical actions such as putting up a sign that
says, “No christians will be served.” Obviously, a bill that was not a
license to discriminate would not necessitate such an amendment, and to
prove the religious repugicans were lying, the amendment was rejected
out-of-hand by the majority repugicans who would not countenance
language that explicitly forbid discrimination masked as “religious
freedom.”
However, as atrocious as legalized discrimination
may appear, and it is an abomination, it is the legislation’s other uses
that should terrify Michigan residents. For example, as the ultimate
“conscience clause,” an extremist christian in the healthcare industry
can put a stop to medical care if they claim their objection is founded
on religious beliefs. Under the legislation, a healthcare provider would
be obliged to send a patient away. It is bad enough that religious
pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions if they “think” a person is
gay, a woman is a single mother, or the patient is the “wrong religion,”
but that is just the beginning. A first responder, whether law
enforcement, fire protection, or ambulance personnel can use “religious
objections” to refuse to provide service to a person or group they feel
violates their religion’s tenets.
Americans just cannot accept that their freedoms,
all of their freedoms, are under siege by a small majority of religious
extremists. It is important for all Americans to comprehend that in Iraq
and Syria, brutal islamic extremists in ISIL are a small majority and
yet they are wreaking death and destruction on the region. The
extremists in the christian wingnuttery movement, as author Chris Hedges
explains
and the fundamentalists admit, adhere to an ideology that calls for the
“eradication of social ‘deviants’ including gay men and lesbians, muslims, liberals, feminists, intellectuals, left-wing activists,
undocumented workers, poor African-Americans and those dismissed as
‘nominal christians’—meaning christians who do not embrace this peculiar
misinterpretation of the bible—will also be ruthlessly repressed and
quickly eradicated. That also includes ‘deviant’ government (secular),
‘deviant’ media, ‘deviant’ schools, and ‘deviant’cults that will be
crushed. In their place “all institutions will propagate ‘christian and
‘family values, and all education (indoctrination) will be handed over
to the cult.
None of those prospects are imaginary, or overstated
by any means, and any American that believes that because they claim christianity as their faith, or live under a founding document that
protects them from religious tyranny are safe, they are deluded.
Americans likely believed the days when white law enforcement officers
could murder African Americans with impunity were over; recent events
prove that is not the case. Americans also likely believed that their
Constitution protected them from religious imposition, or guaranteed
their equality under the law; that is also no longer the case after the
Supreme Court
deconstructed and demolished the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses in the First Amendment.
The Michigan RFRA is a product of a lazy apathetic
population that just cannot comprehend that elections have consequences.
Subsequently, now that the religio-wingnuts control both houses of
Congress, there is nothing except President Obama to stop them from
passing personhood laws the House has passed every year since 2011.
Senate repugicans introduced the same “life begins at intercourse”
legislation as well, but they were thwarted because they did not have
the majority; that ends next month. The recent midterms put more wingnut religious extremists in the House and Senate than the 2010
elections, and now that they are in power, the Michigan RFRA will look
tame compared to what morons like Ted Cruz have planned for the people who
will wish that a “license to discriminate” was their only worry.
Dr.
Sutherland comments, “the crucible adds an intriguing new element to
this emerging chapter in the early history of northern Canada.”
