The backlash against Indiana’s passage of a state version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) should by now have driven home the point that now, in America, sexual liberty supersedes religious liberty.
In spite of the title of the legislation, very few are asking, why is there a need to restore religious freedom? Yet the heavy-handedness and bully tactics brought to bear upon Indiana clearly answers that question by demonstrating that religious expression will no longer be tolerated if those religious expressions do not affirm every aspect of the LGBT agenda.
And helping to lead the charge against RFRA, and the state of Indiana for having the audacity to want to offer protection to our nation’s first freedom, are numbers of major American corporations. Companies who should stick to pushing their products are now in the business of pushing an agenda.
Apple Computers, led by openly gay Tim Cook, blatantly spreads misinformation in a Washington Post op-ed article he wrote, entitled: Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dangerous. Cook claimed: “There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country. A wave of legislation, introduced in more than two dozen states, would allow people to discriminate against their neighbors.”
How incredible that in a nation founded on religious liberty, we are now being told by elites such as Tim Cook that religious freedom is dangerous and discriminatory! Perhaps Cook should use his iPhone to look up the actual verbiage of Indiana’s legislation and he would find it has nothing to do with discrimination.
Lost in the hysteria is the fact that this law merely offers the potential of legal protection against the infringement upon the religious liberty of American citizens and does not give a license to discriminate against homosexuals. Yet facts don’t matter when a potential affront to the LGBT agenda is perceived.
However, Cook’s outrage over this imaginary “discrimination” has him throwing his corporate clout against Indiana’s RFRA legislation, while he lifts up the Apple Corporation as a model of “tolerance”. Cook went on to write in his op-ed piece:
“Our message, to people around the country and around the world, is this: Apple is open. Open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. Regardless of what the law might allow in Indiana or Arkansas, we will never tolerate discrimination.”
Oh, hypocrisy, thy name is Tim Cook. If Apple will not “tolerate discrimination” why do they do business in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Qatar, Uganda, United Arab Emirates – all countries where homosexuals can be put to death! Yet Indiana’s law is “dangerous”?
As George Will commented: “… Tim Cook … thinks Indiana is a horrible place. He opened marketing and retailing operations in Saudi Arabia two months before a man was sentenced to 450 lashes for being gay. The selective indignation is itself wonderful.”
Yet Apple states it will not “tolerate discrimination” and “is open to everyone, regardless of … how they worship”. However that “tolerance” did not apply to the Christian app for the Manhattan Declaration, which Apple removed from its App Store. The Manhattan Declaration affirms the "sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion."
It seems the openness and tolerance that Cook espouses is rather one sided. Who is discriminating against whom?
As Ryan T. Anderson writes for The Daily Signal:
“It is Tim Cook who favors laws that discriminate against people of faith who simply ask to be left alone by government to run their businesses and their schools and their charities in accordance with their reasonable belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. It is Tim Cook who would have the government discriminate against these citizens, have the government coerce them into helping to celebrate a same-sex wedding and penalize them if they try to lead their lives in accordance with their faith.”
But it’s not just Apple throwing its weight around when it comes to such Religious Freedom Restoration Acts. The list is far too lengthy of corporations, national sports leagues, celebrities, and politicians who have piled on to the attack upon Indiana’s RFRA law and also Arkansas where similar legislation was passed, only needing only the governor’s signature. That is until the Wal-Mart Corporation, which is headquartered in Arkansas, used their influence to pressure Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to veto the legislation.
While many may perceive the Wal-Mart Corporation as being “family friendly,” Wal-Mart has long been a proponent of the homosexual agenda.
Back in 2006, which seems a lifetime ago in regards to the cultural war, we reported that Wal-Mart joined and served on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and announced they would give preference to homosexual-owned businesses in purchasing products. Now, 9 years later Wal-Mart is still pushing the homosexual agenda in the name of “inclusion.”
As OneNewsNow reports: “The Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest pro-homosexual activist group in the nation and receives money from Walmart, has given the company a 90% ranking in terms of bowing to the homosexual agenda. However, only 1.7% of the population – and of Walmart’s potential customers – identifies as homosexual.”
While the mainstream media tries to convince that we who support RFRA are in the minority, a Rasmussen Survey released just yesterday found that 70% of Americans “agree that a Christian wedding photographer who has deeply held religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage has the right to turn down working a job at such a wedding.”
Wal-Mart and other corporations are offending a very large customer base. Tony Perkins of Family Research Council said this: “As long as Walmart is taking a stand against religious freedom, I'm not going to be darkening the door of Walmart. It's not vindictive, it's just the fact that I'm not going to empower those who are working against the values that I care for …”
How ironic that corporations who do business in the free market are opposed to the free marketplace of ideas where citizens are allowed to express their religious beliefs in all walks of life.
As Ryan T. Anderson also wrote in The Daily Signal:
What’s most amazing in the debate over Indiana is the level of hypocrisy. Businesses are saying they’ll boycott Indiana over this religious liberty law. So they want the freedom to run their businesses in accordance with their beliefs—so they’ll boycott a state that tries to protect that freedom for all citizens? Do they not see that the baker, photographer and florist are simply asking for the same liberty?
Will Americans who believe what America had always believed about marriage—that it’s a union of husband and wife—be tolerated in the United States?
Yet such corporate thuggery seems to be having its way. Even today Indiana Governor Mike Pence is considering signing a “fix” to Indiana’s RFRA law which, according to Family Research Council, will do much more harm than good.
"Religious freedom should not be held hostage by Big Business. Big Business is now putting religious freedom in a worse place than before RFRA was signed into law. Gutting RFRA in this manner would put people of faith in the crosshairs of government discrimination as never before. Far from being a 'clarification,' this would gut religious freedom in Indiana. Religious freedom doesn't need a 'fix.'
"This proposal would force religious businesses and even nonprofits deemed 'not religious enough' to participate in wedding ceremonies contrary to their owners' beliefs. If the government punishes people for living their faith, there are no limits to what government can control. …
“Now is the time for elected officials to refuse big business' enticements to sacrifice the fundamental right of people to live their lives according to their beliefs. They should stand on the side of freedom and the American people — not with big business and the intolerant left who want to use the government to punish people for freely living according to their beliefs …"
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