Mississippi’s gov. faces down the corporate bullies and leftist pressure groups
On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi signed the
Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act into law.
To protect religious liberty in his state, he stood up against corporate
bullies and leftist pressure groups.
The Republican governor should be an inspiration to
lawmakers everywhere.
In the last few years, states and localities nationwide have prosecuted
small businesses for declining involvement in gay marriage ceremonies. We’ve
seen the government do some pretty terrible things, like Washington state trying to
bankrupt a 70-year-old florist, or Oregon fining a bakery
$135,000 and then placing a
gag order on the owners to silence them.
We’ve even seen the most intolerant tendencies of the Left’s
rank-and-file when a pizza
place in Indiana was threatened with violence for even discussing
the possibility of
not participating in a gay wedding celebration.
The message has been clear: It’s not enough to respect everyone,
to live and let live. You must actively participate in ceremonies that go
against your beliefs or the government will punish you.
To make matters worse, whenever state legislatures have
considered religious freedom bills to protect regular Americans from this
intolerance, activist groups and massive corporations like Disney, Hilton,
and Marriott have shown up and threatened boycotts, protests, and
relocations. Recently, lawmakers in West Virginia and Georgia have been cowed
into shelving or vetoing these common sense policies.
This is the toxic atmosphere of corporate bullying Bryant chose
to fight. As he wrote in a signing statement:
I am signing HB 1523 into law to protect sincerely
held religious beliefs and moral convictions of individuals, organizations and
private associations from discriminatory action by state government or its
political subdivisions […]This bill merely reinforces the rights which
currently exist to the exercise of religious freedom as stated in the First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
A shocking amount of slanted news stories uncritically
describe Mississippi’s new law as “anti-gay” or “discriminatory.” Nothing could
be further from the truth
A shocking amount of slanted news stories uncritically describe
Mississippi’s new law as “anti-gay” or “discriminatory.” Nothing could be
further from the truth—you can read the details here. The law
now simply protects religious organizations and a narrow slice of small
businesses from being forced by government to engage in behavior that
contradicts their deeply held beliefs. Nobody is being denied services because
of who they are.
Bryant and the Mississippi state legislature have set a sterling
example for other states seeking to protect the rights of all Americans. They
did so in the face of vitriolic, misleading opposition from progressives and
the corporations they use as instruments of bullying. This took real courage,
and deserves our praise.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily
Signal.
