Thursday, September 10, 2015

Religious Freedom Report: 09.10.15:

The main issue of discussion is, of course, Kim Davis:


Rich Juzwiak, writing for Gawker, writes the way Gawker would normally do and claims that the only reason Mike Huckabee was interested in Kim Davis was for self promotion.
  • Huckabee rushed to her side to impose his own agenda on her repugnant cause. The reason he did this is that he has spent so much time championing “traditional marriage” that when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of nationwide same-sex marriage in June, Huckabee watched one of his most prominent platforms disintegrate under his feet. He watched his relevance dry up on the spot. That must be terrifying for a presidential hopeful and famewhore like Huckabee.


  •  CNN's Alisyn Camerota asked Huckabee about Charee Stanley, a flight attendant for ExpressJet who was suspended for refusing to serve alcohol. She said it violated her religious beliefs. "Historically we have made accommodations for people with religious convictions," Huckabee said when asked if he Stanley has the right to refuse to serve alcohol.
    "You've seen it in Michigan where they spent $25,000 providing foot baths for Muslims students," he said, adding that the U.S. gave prayer mats to prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Alan Wolfe (Politico) makes an important observation when he notes:
  •  Rights, for one thing, while offering protection against an intrusive state, cannot be enforced without the help of the state. 
And we have seen clearly that there is no such thing as equal rights for everyone in the US even though some claim there are. The one that has the state backing will be more equal then any of the others.

Georgia is pushing for a Religious Freedom act. So far most of these so-called Religious Freedom Acts get neutered to the point "why even bother" by the time they are passed. 

  • “The law worked the way it was designed to work,” state Sen. Josh McKoon, R -Columbus said. “We're not going to say your religious freedom trumps your duty as an elected official to follow the law.”
Worked? The way it was designed?

The Miami Herald, in an editorial, gave a kudos remark about Lindsey Graham:
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., hit the nail on the head: “I support traditional marriage, but she’s accepted a job where she has to apply the law to everyone. And that’s her choice,” he said.
But Graham is a rather unpopular Republican. Even worse as a presidential candidate. So there's hardly much fortifying an issue by using him as an example.

Gun-rights group Florida Carry sued Florida State University president John Thrasher for banning students from bringing firearms to this weekend’s home football game against the University of South Florida. In what, so far, has got to be one of the most ridiculous arguments against guns, PalmBeach columnist Frank Cerabino writes:
  •  Thrasher could cite his own deeply held Christian convictions to say that to allow guns on campus would require him to turn his back on his God, who made “Thou shalt not kill” one of the 10 Commandments.Jesus never instructed his disciples to “Standeth thy groundeth and smite thine enemies with lethal force, my children.”
    No, instead, Jesus spoke against people thinking they have the right to kill other people, even those who did them wrong.

     
That may be a good argument for Bible control when it is clearly unsafe to keep it in the hands of liberals who might use it against people who they think are doing them wrong.