new "Religious Freedom" laws - spreading like wild-fire

[Equinox Moon]

On ABC this morning, 4/10/16, a statistic was reported:

Since last summer x 24 states and over 200 new laws
have been passed in the name of "religious freedom".

WOW! this is spreading like wild-fire and sure to be headed to the Supreme Court. Maybe many of them will.

What happened to the separation of church and state?

[sakabatou]

1. Religious freedom my ass

Might as well call them the "New Jim Crow" laws.

[mnhtnbb]

2. The Bible thumpers want a theocracy and they're going to push this crap

everywhere they can and make it expensive to fight.

[2naSalit]

3. Exactly. ...nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. More to the point;

The fact that liberal political forces have promoted civil rights for the LGBT community as well as an overall move toward less religion in general is viewed as an "attack" on Christianity by many devoutly religious.

In fact what is happening is they aren't getting their way completely anymore and they don't fucking like it, not one bit.

Christianity has had is way regarding public mores for about 15 centuries and now, thanks in many ways to the internet, they are starting to get real pushback and....well...they just can't have that, now can they?

[Arugula Latte]

34. So true. They've been used to people just nodding along with their nonsense.

Now they are finding out that a significant chunk of the population isn't buying into their primitive mythology and they are royally pissed.

[malaise]

4. Not religious freedom

RW Xtian freedom

[lagomorph777]

31. Hey this country was founded on "freedom."

The Pilgrims came so they could have religious "freedom" to impose their beliefs on others, without interference from the Crown.

Later, their descendants wanted the "freedom" to enslave others. The founding fathers saw that slavery was becoming politically unpopular in England and decided they needed to protect their financial interests, so they split from the Empire.

[bemildred]

5. This should be entertaining. nt

[Equinox Moon]

6. They are passing legal discrimination laws

and hurting people's lives.

People can be fired with no recourse because of some of these laws.

I am glad my state has not joined in on the madness, although there are some of these new madness bills roaming around in our legislature.

STOP THE MADNESS!

[bemildred]

7. Oh it will be plenty ugly too. But you know they will make a mess before they start.

I think they are going to get a lot more backlash than they think.

[Rex]

9. Well in fairness the GOP has spent the last 8 years trying desperately to cause social unrest

and then blame it on Obama. Hasn't really worked out well for them, because the POTUS won't play along.

[bemildred]

10. That's kind of what I'm getting at. It doesn't work like they think any more.

Social media has changed that.

[Rex]

11. Thank goodness for social media, it also explains the visceral hatred they have for bloggers.

And social media. I think deep inside all conservatives, is a control freak desperately trying to claw their way out and take over the planet. One poor soul at a time.

[bemildred]

14. Well it's definitely about control. nt

[Rex]

8. The GOP is trying hard to self-destruct and so they are taking down as many innocent people

with them as they can. This ALWAYS happens with conservatives, they fuck up so much that it eventually causes social unrest.

[Equinox Moon]

12. Indeed,

It is a twisted ideology that only a few believe in. The social unrest will help educate them. AND we need creative ways to re-teach them. It is backward thinking they live by.

[Rex]

13. They desperately try to fight against the arrow of time. Which is ludicrous.

As if they can turn back the clock, which is impossible. Progressives always move forward whereas conservatives always are standing still and refuse to move forward.

We win, by default. It might take some time, but in the end we win by the very nature of the universe. IMO.

[lagomorph777]

32. Yes! We have entropy on our side.

We obey the Second Law of Thermodynamics; pukes think they can ignore it.

[Rex]

45. We recognize the universe and embrace it's truths. That is what progressives do.

'Conservatives' pretend they can cheat the laws of reality. In many ways I pity them for living such a myopic existence. Knowledge has expanded my universe, I feel more enriched by what I've learned and continue to learn. The GOP is terrified of concepts they cannot understand, so they instantly hate or fear whatever it is. Sad.

[world wide wally]

15. How can it even be "religious" to discriminate?

Do angels float down and sing in chorus every time a gay persons descrninated against? Do the heavens open?
Please explain how it is a "religious experience" to not fix someone's plumbing or whatever.

[Equinox Moon]

19. From what I understand...

... they are saying their rights are violated when they are forced to serve people, that goes against their religious beliefs.

And now we have this bathroom law idiocy going on!

TAKE RELIGION OUT OF POLITICS. PERIOD.

It's very simple.

Oh... yah... we already have that! Guess they are finding cleaver manipulative new ways around it.

[cleanhippie]

37. A better idea is to marginalize religious beliefs as the rationale for any policy legislation.

[kairos12]

16. We have now reached Monty Python levels of absurd such that when

you call out religious bigots for what they are doing, they say you are intolerant because you don't tolerate their intolerance. Don't ask me to repeat that. I'm going to have many drinks right now.

[lagomorph777]

33. It's as ridiculous as a candidate demanding not to be interrupted when they are interrupting.

It's bullyshit.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

42. Don't worry

It all makes the kind of sense....that doesn't.

[Jim Beard]

17. They always do this when they feel threatened.

Changed the Pledge of Allegiance in the 1950's to add (under god).

[TipTok]

18. They think they've discovered a loophole..

... That allows them to push their agenda and not sound bigoted as they have in the past.

It's no longer the fight for one man, one woman.

It's the fight for their free expression. Etc.. Etc...

Gets some of the libertarian crowd too...

[ProfessorGAC]

39. It Isn't Working

Because it still sounds just as blatantly bigoted whether they think it sounds less so, or not. I get what you're saying, but they're just fooling themselves.

[TipTok]

41. It's working a bit...

They are passing versions of the 'religious freedom' law in several states.

Even if they are eventually overturned, they will be on the books for quite a while.

Also, I think that gay marriage in particular was starting to become less of a driving issue for many folks and so they moved onto something else.

It sounds just as backward to folks that populate this board but your average citizen likely takes it as a softer version.

After all, what sort of fascist commies could be against 'religious freedom'?

[ProfessorGAC]

46. And Yet. . .

. . .their highest profile candidates have favorability ratings among the broader population in the 20's.

They're passing these laws, but that won't pass a court challenge. It only takes one to get stricken and the rest will fall like dominoes. The cost per suit to eliminate them goes down and then they get stricken by some courts without further consideration.

Same thing happened with the Jim Crow laws. And the overall population was less tolerant back then.

[TipTok]

47. That's the ideal...

... However reality tends seep in.

[joshcryer]

20. Hobby Lobby decision.

[spanone]

21. there is NO separation of church & state

tennessee has a law on the governors desk right now making the bible it's official book....fuck these 'law' makers wishing for a theocracy

[Equinox Moon]

22. Wow, it made it that far?

Do you have a link to that bill? I would be curious to see what they cooked up.

I really like your peace/dove image. I might borrow it.

[spanone]

24. here you go...feel free to use image!

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/04/bill-make-bible-official-state-book-heads-haslam/82625250/

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/05/473086571/bible-could-become-an-official-state-symbol-as-tennessee-approves-bill

[seanjoycek476]

23. Bible thumping fundies hard at work

They are no better than the Taliban.

[NightWatcher]

25. No better. No different.

[kristopher]

26. hey man, read this

If you have something to say to me, please say it

[cleanhippie]

38. Sorry to tell you this, but it's not just the fundies who are to blame.

Even the most liberal religious person will see any attempt to marginalize religious rationale as the basis for policy to be an attack on their faith.

[Equinox Moon]

28. Activist Poetry

Thought we could use some activist poetry to clear our pallets of all the new "religious freedom" laws sweeping this country.

[whatthehey]

29. Remember this next time DU Christians tell you religion is harmless

and does not motivate bigotry and hate. Even they will be hard-put to lay these laws at the feet of the usual scapegoats for religious fuckery.

[Arugula Latte]

35. Even some supposed DU "atheists" say things like:

"Oh, I just don't think it's a good idea to put up atheist billboards. It offends people and it's too in-your-face."

Funny, it never, ever seems the right time for atheists to push back against irrational thought. Meanwhile, the religious seemingly have no restrictions on spout their nonsense 24/7 in almost any medium you can think of.

[lagomorph777]

30. ALEC at work again?

I'm sure this latest scheme will work just as well as the anti-gay-marriage scheme did.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

40. I know that ALEC has a reputation for spreading certain kinds of bills around to the states

but this sort of law doesn't seem like their M.O. Don't they mostly push big business-backed/anti-worker legislation? Most businesses- to their credit- are actually fighting against these "religious freedom" bills when they pop up (NC's hate law got passed too fast for opposition to build against it, however many businesses are putting the squeeze on McCrory now).

[Avalon Sparks]

36. So let the assholes announce themselves...and display their ignorance

Quite frankly I don't want to work for or give money to a straight up bigot. I am glad they are coming out of the closet so I can hit them where it hurts any chance I get.

However, please tell me that none of these laws allow a medical (health not mental) to deny treatment.


This is their last gasp I believe, the law will backfire on them. Fuck them.

[robertgodardfromnj]

43. This is truly a disturbing trend

As far as I'm concerned, the idiots passing these moronic laws are no better than the Taliban, and have no right to complain about things like "Sharia Law".

[Blue Dalek]

44. If the fucking bigots want to call these measures

"religious freedom" thats one thing. But when the MSM also uses the term and does not point out and call out the hatred, intollerance and bigotry of these measures, that is what burns my biscuits. Yeah, I know, the MSM is bought by large corporations but holy fuck this shit has gone on long enough!

[Oneironaut]

48. We need someone to demand their workers follow Sharia Law.

That would be a hilariously ironic consequence of these laws.