The circus surrounding the movement of Georgia House Bill 757 dealing with religious freedom pointed out the glaring problem of a significant leadership vacuum, especially on social issues.
After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriage throughout the land, the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts began to be seen as an obstacle to LGBT rights. Nearly 20 years ago, RFRA began with U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy at the federal level and mirror images of the statute were passed in nearly 30 states with little fanfare, but that was before the Supreme Court ruling.
What was so distasteful about Georgia’s attempts at a RFRA-type law was the name-calling, threats and complete lack of any type of collaborative spirit.
When I asked Georgians if we should discriminate against people because they are LGBT, the answer was consistently “no.” When I asked should we uphold the religious freedoms granted in the U.S. Constitution, the answer was consistently “yes.” So why could a bill not be crafted that allowed clergy, places of worship and faith-based organizations to not be infringed upon by the government and, at the same time, ensure that persons who are LGBT do not face discrimination external of those specific religious institutions?
The unfortunate answer was many of the parties had no intention of even attempting a workable solution; and a broad array of leaders chose to crow, threaten and call people names instead of being leaders.
Our Chamber of Commerce leadership had one mission: kill RFRA. I am not sure that the powers of commerce even care about freedom of religion and they certainly showed no signs of caring during the legislative debate.
The hypocrisy of Disney threatening to pull films out of Georgia when Disney World in Florida and ESPN in Connecticut both reside in RFRA states was glaring. Additionally, the NFL’s issuing threats as some sort of moral leader, alongside concussion cover-ups and having cities give back sales taxes to get Super Bowls, is ridiculous.
Where were the business leaders who could have brought the parties together toward resolution, our modern-day Robert Woodruffs?
The city that used to be too busy to hate threw one heck of a nasty hate-fest.
Gov. Nathan Deal was another disappointment. Why was our top political leader not trying to work on a common ground solution like he does on other bills? Instead of the “I might sign it and I might not” murmuring, why not pull business, political and LGBT leaders together and try to develop a solution?
I agree with pundit Erick Erickson that Gov. Deal made quite a few demands of the legislators pushing HB 757, to which they conceded — only to have the rug pulled out from under them — and this was very disappointing.
So we now have continued animosity. We have a situation where the courts are most likely going to decide what is religious freedom, instead of the representatives of the people.
And, finally, we have business and civic leaders who’re willing to engage in threats and name-calling instead of collaboration, and a Governor who decided to sit on the sideline.
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