Religion and the Bill of Rights

There is nothing n the bill of rights that allows one right to trump another. Yes the religionists want the freedom to practice their religion to trump all others. That is what is wrong with the original Indiana law and all similar laws.
Suppose there was a law putting Feedom of Speech above all others, meaning that anyone could disrupt religious services and gatherings anywhere and at any time?
What if MY religion directs me to assault every theist I might come across? What if someone’s religion says lynching is moral and should be legal? Doesn’t such a person also have the right to place his religious belief above all other rights?
The original Indiana law and others were passed specifically to allow businesses to refuse to offer services at gay weddings and gay celebrations and to put religious rights above all others.
Do caterers and florists in Indiana who believe divorce is wrong now question heterosexual couples planning a wedding whether either person had been married before and the refuse to provode services? Do they question whether the couple had sex before marriage? Do they question whether the woman is pregnant! Do they question whether a child celebrating a birthday is legitimate? That the participants in any celebration have been baptized? Do they refuse to provide services to people being married outside their own church and without its blessing? If they don"t they are being inconsistent and only plead the right to their religious beliefs when doung business if it has to do with gays… All other celebrations they are asked to provide services for that contradict their religious beliefs apparently get a pass. This is the height of hypocrisy.
LL

The original Indiana law and others were passed specifically to allow businesses to refuse to offer services at gay weddings and gay celebrations and to put religious rights above all others
That pretty much sums it up. They call it "religious freedom", but what they mean is discrimination. I call it smoke and mirrors. What is wrong with all of these gay-bashing right wing nutjobs (yes, I said nutjobs) is that they are cowards who are only duping themselves. This has become the way of the Republican Party. They think we are all stupid enough to buy their smoke and mirrors. What they say: We must have freedom to practice our religion. What they mean: We are uncomfortable with homosexuality. Let us use religion to mask our prejudice and discriminatory policies. What they say: Republicans are the party of small government. What they mean: Republicans are the party of overreaching government. We want both the Federal and State governments to monitor the behavior of private citizens in their bedrooms and dictate what they can and cannot do. What they say: We must insure only authorized people are allowed to vote. What they mean: Let us insure only whites be allowed to vote. Let us pass voter registration laws requiring blacks and Hispanics to have government ID cards like most white people have. What they say: We need to redistrict to be fair. What they mean: We need to redistrict so that any black or Hispanic votes that sneak through our net do not count as much as our white votes. What they say: There is no such thing as Global Warming, much less human caused Global Warming. 3% of the science community says so. What they mean: Big Oil and Big Coal stuffs money in my pocket so I must do as they tell me. And now, more than ever, they are the party of the Drama Queens. What they say: Christianity is under attack! (This reminds me of Nazi Germany bemoaning the mistreatment German’s were suffering at the hands of the Polish prior to launching the invasion in 1939.) What they mean: We need to buck up our ever dwindling support by trying to portray we “Good old (straight white) boys" as the victims.

Great examples, and it reminds us that religion and conservatism really ARE for the stupid and that not much has changed in hundreds of years. Reminds me of The Church forcing Galileo to publically refute his ideas, as if refuting them would cause them to be false. The sheer stupidity of that mindset is just astounding and yet it’s still with us in the Tea Party.