Corporate war on religious freedom and LGBT bullies
Attorney
Jane Robbins, Senior Fellow with the American Principles Project, commented on
the economic threats to Georgia. "Good people are trying to live
their lives according to their faith. Are we really going to subordinate
religious freedom to the love of money?"
Pastor
Garland Hunt of the Fellowship of International Churches told LifeSiteNews,
"There is no plausible reason for the governor to not have
enthusiastically signed Georgia’s Religious Freedom Act.”
Macon's
Berean Baptist Church pastor Joe Bowker told LifeSiteNews of the legislation,
"in no way is it discriminatory," because "disagreement is not
discrimination."
Robbins
characterized America’s corporations as assisting bigotry.
“Anti-religious bigots, emboldened by corporate America and the political
left, are now waging all-out war on religious freedom. This crass attempt to
bully people of faith is un-American."
Of
the many major corporations threatening boycott, Robbins commented,
"Ironically, these same corporations have expressed no reservations about
making money in countries that put homosexuals to death."
Many
of the same corporations which pressured Georgia’s governor also pressured
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence into abandoning a Religious Freedom Restoration Act
last year -- even though the law was similar to the federal version backed by
the ACLU in 1993.
Starbucks,
Apple, Angie's List, PayPal, Marriott, Yelp, Salesforce, Eli Lilly, NASCAR, the
NCAA, the NBA, the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever all made statements against
Indiana’s religious freedom bill.
In
2014, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was successfully pressured by corporate America --including Marriott Hotels,
Apple, American Airlines, AT&T, Delta Airlines, Intel, Major League
Baseball, the Super Bowl host committee and Yelp-- to veto a similar religious freedom bill in her state.
In
2015, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart successfully pressured Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto a religious freedom bill
in the razorback state.
A
strong majority of citizens supported the Georgia bill, but it seems, in the
land of the free, Big Business still gets what Big Business wants.
Twisting
the knife, Gov. Deal not only caved to corporate pressure, but he blamed religious conservatives while vetoing the bill, saying his
state will not bow to theirpressure.
The National Review’s
David French put it, “When Disney says ‘Jump,’ Georgia governor Nathan Deal
doesn’t just ask ‘How high?,’ he insults anyone who asks him to stand his
ground.”
The
result of this trend of corporate bullying is that increasingly, the isolated
lawsuits by gay advocates against individual bakers and other Christian
business owners are becoming enshrined into law.
