re: Indiana Religious Freedom Bill

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TeLaFaWx, I'm so glad you're in this thread. You do a great job of explaining that which is hard to understand for some.

I find it difficult to think that so many people accept the idea of "private" business as being a personal right. They see the current religious discrimination against gays as okay but don't see the big picture which would have to include the acceptance of discrimination by anyone against anyone else.

Some want religious "freedom" to extend into every facet of American life. Our nation's founders and the Constitution they forged laid out the parameters for religious practice in the U. S.

No religion can be part of our various governments, for example. Nor can religious laws supersede a civil system of rules. It is the latter that proponents of religious "freedom" want to accomplish.

They want to override anti-discriminatory civil laws with laws that grant them the right to selectively provide services to the public based on whom they feel are in concert with their religious beliefs.

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Meh. I mean I used to not care about gay rights and I used to be of the belief that private individuals can do whatever they want who cares. As I've gotten older I think I've grown wiser. A culture of homophobia and bigotry leads to hate and teen suicides among gays being the highest demographic in this country. I just don't think extending discrimination laws to gays would destroy or undermine the free market any more than Civil Rights legislation did. Yeah, Michael Sam sticking his tongue down some dudes throat was a bit shocking, and it is a bit weird, but whatever. If that made just one kid out there a little bit more accepting of himself, then my momentary discomfort was 100% justifiable.

I know this turns in to a religious argument, but I don't think most anti-homosexuals are out there are actually any more die hard Deuteronomy defenders than anyone else. They probably eat bacon too, and that's only a few lines away. They are just uncomfortable with homosexuality. People used to be uncomfortable with a black man kissing a white woman in the same way. I read something today that 4% of America thought it was okay for whites to marry non-whites in 1958. They'll get over it eventually. They are just using this religion thing as their last resort. As if someone's nature and that person's normal participation in life somehow violates their way of life. We don't need a society that promotes that concept in any form or fashion, IMO.