A soldier returns from war. He has just served his fifth tour of duty in some far off land and has been away from his family for more than a year, just on this deployment alone. He’s never seen his six-month-old baby. His four-year-old barely remembers spending time with him.All is well now though. He has returned in tact and anticipates no further deployments. Although his family expected him home soon, he arrived two weeks early. On the way home he decides to stop at a locally-owned burger restaurant in his small Indiana town.He’s still wearing his military fatigues and when he walks into the restaurant the owner greets him at the door. The soldier thinks that owner is going to welcome him home, maybe thank him for his service.Instead, the owner tells him to get out of his restaurant. He won’t serve him.A new restaurant opens in a different town. It’s located in a strip mall and has a funny name. A woman walks by, pushing her two kids in a stroller. They’re all hungry and the air is thick with delicious, unfamiliar smells. Both the kids have been good so she decides they’ll all go to lunch.She opens the door and as soon as she walks in a voice from behind the counter begins yelling at her. At first she’s confused, then alarmed as the loud voice is frightening her children. A man walks through a door from the back and waves his hand, shooing her out of the building.The Indiana House yesterday passed Senate Bill 101. The first sentence of the bill’s summary describes it as “Religious freedom restoration.” That sounds like a reaction to the popular “We’re losing our freedom!” refrain so popular among a certain segment of the population over the past few years.
(Want to have fun? Next time you hear someone cry about losing freedoms, ask them to state one actual freedom that has been lost over the past few years and exactly what the government has done to destroy that freedom. Then wait for an answer.)But “Religious freedom restoration” is really just a fancy way of saying “we want to discriminate against people who do things that our religion doesn’t agree with.”So this bill would make it legal for a businessman against gay marriage to refuse service to a gay couple. Or it could provide a Catholic pharmacist the right to refuse to fill a prescription for birth control.In a country that has been fighting to overcome discrimination since its founding, Indiana has decided to turn back time. It’s as if the state assembly and supporters of the bill have said “Equal rights? Non-discrimination? Fairness? Justice? No thanks. That sounds like you’re taking away my freedom.”I hope people who support Senate Bill 101 think about the two scenarios I described above. Most people would be appalled if they saw such events unfold. But how is either situation different than not serving gay couples because you’re religiously opposed to gay marriage?If the soldier walked into a Quaker-owned restaurant, and the pacifist owner refused to serve the soldier because he carried out actions against the owner’s religion, wouldn’t we be up in arms? Wouldn’t the same people who support this discriminatory bill be at the front of the pack decrying the disrespect toward a soldier?But wouldn’t this bill protect the owner?And if the Muslim owner of the new restaurant believed that all women should have their faces covered in public, and refused service to the mother because she wasn’t covered, can you imagine the outcry? There’d be immediate talk about Islam being a barbaric religion that denigrates women.But wouldn’t this bill protect the owner?However, if we allow this to stand, why stop at businesses? Shouldn’t I have the right to practice my religion without government interference? If my wife’s sort of mouthy sometimes, and I find a religion that lets me slap her for that, isn’t the government infringing upon my freedoms if they try to stop me?Indiana’s horrifically incompetent governor, Mike Pence, has promised to sign SB101. It looks like it’s going to become law. Someday we’ll look at this episode and shake our head in disbelief that something like that could pass.Until then, perhaps the only thing we can do is hold our legislators’ feet to the fire, and hope that discriminating businesses are forced to close because people stop shopping there.And as long as we're hoping, we might as well hope for a new state legislature and governor, too.PREVIOUS POST: George Zimmerman's Video Interview is Like a Horror FilmIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: Indiana's Sunday Alcohol Ban Should End+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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