You’ll get no argument from me that all of us have the right to object to anything that we feel contradicts our religious beliefs.
But I've said it once and I'm here to say it again that neither should we use our beliefs to justify discriminating against others.
And so naturally I was pleasantly surprised to learn last week that Gov. Nathan Deal, under pressure from people on both sides of the issue, vetoed the “religious liberty” bill. So were a lot of others I know.
House Bill 757 would have given Georgia’s faith-based organizations the option to deny services and jobs to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Supporters say the measure was meant to protect religious freedom. Opponents describe it as “anti-LGBT.”
Patti Davis, a retired mother of three from Duluth, said the governor got it right. Not just for economic reasons but moral ones.
“It is wrong to discriminate against any group of citizens, whether gay, black, disabled, or old,” she said. “The bill would have allowed discrimination, no matter what the supporters say. I know of no circumstance where a pastor has been forced to perform a marriage ceremony he or she was against.”
Although we can’t know all the scenarios that might present a conflict to people’s religious beliefs, writing discriminatory practices into law just isn’t right. It wasn’t right during the civil rights movement. It isn’t right now.
In a press conference early last week, Deal said the bill doesn't reflect Georgia's image as a state full of "warm, friendly and loving people."
“Our people work side by side without regard to the color of our skin, or the religion we adhere to,” Deal said. “We are working to make life better for our families and our communities. That is the character of Georgia.”
Vetoing the bill, the governor said, was his way of keeping it that way.
This could have very easily gone the other way. The bill passed the Senate 38-14 after just three hours of debate in February and after passing in the House 161-0.
That triggered an avalanche of criticism from gay rights groups and business leaders who threatened to pull their business from the state.
Days after the veto, Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, expressed gratitude not just for the governor’s actions but his words.
“I hope that people on both sides of this issue will heed his words to respect others,” Graham said. “This is certainly a time of change in Georgia as more and more people, from across the political spectrum, recognize that the members of the LGBT community are also family members, co-workers and neighbors. “
Graham said the work of changing hearts and minds to understand that LGBT Georgians do not pose a threat to anyone is work that must continue.
“We also know that the generation of young people who are graduating from school and starting families of their own have very different views of the LGBT community than their elders,” Graham said. “They give me so much hope for the future because to them, being gay or transgender is just another aspect of living in a diverse society.”
Still, gay and transgender Georgians have no explicit legal protections on the state or federal level. Georgia remains one of only five states without a statewide civil rights bill of any kind.
None of that mattered to religious leaders and members of their flock who were disappointed by the veto. They have vowed to call for a special session, which would require a three-fifth majority in both chambers to convene, and a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override the governor’s veto.
“Big business and lots of money versus Christians who believe in following their conscience is not negotiable,” said Anne Pillsbury. “No contest! But what does Gov. Deal plan to do to prevent discrimination and persecution of people who take their faith seriously and believe that marriage between people of the same sex is an offense to God? Their priority is honoring God’s opinion over the opinion of others — even those with lots of money and connections.”
Pillsbury said that while she does not believe “anyone should be unkind to those of the same sex who marry,” she also doesn’t believe Christians should be forced to violate their conscience.
“I am extremely disappointed in Gov. Deal,” she said. “He’ll not get my vote again.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the devil had arrived in the form of big business and cowardly politics.
The veto, he said, reveals how LGBT activists and their allies in big business are not willing to allow religious freedom within the four walls of the church.
"It's disappointing that only one day after Easter Sunday, Gov. Deal announces the veto of a modest bill that would provide protections for churches threatened by government discrimination in the wake of the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage," Perkins said.
If a church finds that it is being discriminated against, I will be the first to come to its defense, but I doubt that will ever happen.
This feels to me like the late Middle Ages, when Christian leaders nearly destroyed Europe with their wars and repressive governments.
It feels nothing like the gospel I’ve grown to love and more precisely the things for which Jesus stood for — justice for all, respect for the outcast, and inclusion.
To this day, Gov. Deal has refused to expand Medicaid, essentially denying more than 500,000 uninsured Georgia residents access to medical coverage, so I don't necessarily buy his reasons for vetoing House Bill 757.
But I have little doubt that Jesus would’ve done the same thing.
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