From a Feb. 27 online letter by J. Robert White, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s executive director:
I trust you hold the same conviction that I do, that we must do all in our ability to protect our churches, our ministers and our people from encroachment upon our deeply held religious convictions. We are all familiar with the cases of the florist, the photographer and the baker who refused to serve the homosexual marriage. Did they have the right to do that? Absolutely. Based upon their religious convictions, protected by the U.S. Constitution, there can be no law either to establish religion or to prevent the free exercise of religion. You and I know that the free exercise of religion includes all of life, not just in the church on Sunday.
We are told, and it has been demonstrated that federal protection is not enough. We need that same protection at the state level. Our Senate recently added an amendment to the Pastor Protection Act, HB 757, which adds the protection we need. The bill is now back in the House where there is a threat to add language that would remove protection from for profit, faith-based businesses, such as a Hobby Lobby.
From an online newsletter of the Georgia Baptist Christian Index:
State Sen. Josh McKoon explained, “In 2014 we presented a bill to treat free exercise the same as free speech. (Free exercise is the accompanying clause with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and relates to the government making no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …).
McKoon added, “But we got bushwhacked. However, the support we got from Virginia Galloway (Regional Field Director of Faith and Freedom) and the Faith and Freedom Coalition was like being at the Alamo and seeing the cavalry coming over the hill to the rescue.
“Religious faith is not like a piece of clothing that you take off when you leave church, but something that permeates every area of your life.”
Mike Griffin, head of public affairs for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, on myAJC.com Mar. 3:
“God’s word is not changing.” “When it comes to the issue of marriage, while that’s changed, God’s definition has not.”
HB 757, Griffin said, “does not seek to disenfranchise anyone, it doesn’t seek to discriminate against anyone.”
“It protects people of faith from discrimination by the government coercing them into actions that violates their religious beliefs.”
From The Daily Signal website:
Georgia's HB 757 is a good first step to protecting freedom after the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage. It is a measured, reasonable, commonsense policy. It would ensure that no state agency discriminates against individuals or institutions for following their convictions about marriage as a man-woman union by revoking, for example, their nonprofit tax-exempt status or denying them government grants, contracts, accreditation, or licenses. The bill protects freedom and pluralism in the wake of social change—embodying the best of American values.
Other states have penalized bakers, florists, photographers, farmers, and adoption agencies simply for acting on their belief that marriage unites a man and a woman. Georgia wants to avoid following this bad precedent. Georgia wants to promote tolerance—and is being attacked because of it.
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