The Reduction Of Civil Rights By The Left

     By now everyone who pays attention to the news of the day is aware of the Indiana law which reaffirms the 1993 federal law supporting the religious freedom enshrined in the First Amendment of the United States constitution. Indiana not only enjoins the federal law but matriculates itself into the body of dozens of states with similar laws. Of course those other states, many run by Democrats, did not face the Tsunami of criticism that Indiana Governor Mike Pence and his legislature have faced after passing a law that simply parrots what the framers of our constitution saw as the linchpin of all freedom, i.e. religious freedom.
     The founders of this great nation knew that when religious freedom is classified as a burden to society in the name of a tortured tolerance for any one group in that society, then the civil rights of the whole will have been compromised. For there can only be civil rights for the whole when the religious conscience of individuals are respected and defended. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. knew this to be true and it is why he acknowledged the inextricable link between civil rights and religious conscience.
     Many on the Left have treated religious freedom as some sort of after thought by the founders, as if it was the cherry on top the sundae instead of the ice cream that forms the very foundation of the thing. But the Founders understood religious freedom to be essential to the success of any free and libertarian republic. For if a man could not practice the tenets of his conscience, informed by religious faith, then no other freedom could be guaranteed or possible.
     The opponents of religious freedom on the Left surmise that such defense of the constitution could lead to certain groups (in this case homosexuals) being discriminated against. But they have convoluted the definition of discrimination to mean an unwillingness by a person of religious conviction to participate in an event that violates their conscience, as opposed to the active pursuit to prevent a person from participating in the general benefits of society simply because of their sexual orientation.
     The Astroturf opposition to the Indiana law, when there was no such opposition to similar laws throughout the country, shows an attempt on the part of the Left to intimidate Americans into subjugating their constitutional right of the free exercise of religious faith to the gods of political correctness and petty politics. I doubt that those like Apple CEO Tim Cook, who so quickly took up the banner of intolerance for religious conscience, even read the Indiana law or were aware of the federal law that it mimicked. No, they are far too busy trying to impose their will on small business owners who refuse to participate in gay marriage ceremonies, and in thus doing they have diluted and reduced the civil rights of all Americans.