{"id":26366,"date":"2016-12-13T05:45:17","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T10:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=26366"},"modified":"2016-12-12T21:13:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T02:13:45","slug":"democrats-lost-raised-religious-liberty-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/12\/democrats-lost-raised-religious-liberty-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats lost because they raised religious liberty fears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"2519766036_d988be0058_z\"<\/a>The reason the Democrats lost, argues David Bernstein in the Washington Post,\u00a0<\/em>is that their words, actions, and policies\u00a0made large numbers of Christians afraid that their religious liberty is in jeopardy. \u00a0So even though they had major\u00a0qualms about Donald Trump, they voted for him in large enough numbers to give him the victory.<\/p>\n

Bernstein\u2019s point, I believe, is that Democrats wouldn\u2019t have<\/em> to threaten religious liberty to meet their major policy goals. \u00a0The country could have gay marriage without punishing those who don\u2019t believe in it. \u00a0The country could have legalized and insurance-subsidized abortion without making religious people pay for it. \u00a0LGBT folks could have legal rights and find acceptance\u2013probably more acceptance\u2013 even if they made some accommodation to religious sensitivities. \u00a0And yet, Democrats threatened and demonized Christians, oblivious to the fact that this meant that a very \u00a0large percentage of the American public would not be voting for them.<\/p>\n

\n

Read Bernstein\u2019s\u00a0analysis after the jump. \u00a0Is he describing you?<\/p>\n

From David Bernstein,\u00a0The Supreme Court oral argument that cost Democrats the presidency \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

To what can we attribute Trump\u2019s success? The most logical answer is that religious traditionalists felt that their religious liberty was under assault from liberals, and they therefore had to hold their noses and vote for Trump. As Sean Trende of RealClear Politics noted, since 2012<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Democrats and liberals have: booed the inclusion of God in their platform at the 2012 convention (this is disputed, but it is the perception); endorsed a regulation that would allow transgendered students to use the bathroom and locker room corresponding to their identity; attempted to force small businesses to cover drugs they believe induce abortions; attempted to force nuns to provide contraceptive coverage; forced Brendan Eich to step down as chief executive officer of Mozilla due to his opposition to marriage equality; fined a small Christian bakery over $140,000 for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding; vigorously opposed a law in Indiana that would provide protections against similar regulations \u2013 despite having overwhelmingly supported similar laws when they protected Native American religious rights \u2013 and then scoured the Indiana countryside trying to find a business that would be affected by the law before settling upon a small pizza place in the middle of nowhere and harassing the owners. In 2015, the United States solicitor general suggested that churches might lose their tax exempt status if they refused to perform same-sex marriages. In 2016, the Democratic nominee endorsed repealing the Hyde Amendment, thereby endorsing federal funding for elective abortions. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s focus on one of these incidents, the time the solicitor general of the United States acknowledged that religious institutions that oppose as a matter of internal policy same-sex marriage may lose their tax exemptions. At oral argument in the Obergefell<\/em> same-sex marriage case, there was the following colloquy:<\/p>\n

Justice Samuel Alito: Well,\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0Bob\u00a0Jones\u00a0case, the\u00a0Court\u00a0held\u00a0that\u00a0a\u00a0college\u00a0was\u00a0not\u00a0entitled\u00a0to tax\u00adexempt\u00a0status\u00a0if\u00a0it\u00a0opposed\u00a0interracial\u00a0marriage\u00a0or interracial\u00a0dating.\u00a0 So\u00a0would\u00a0the\u00a0same\u00a0apply\u00a0to\u00a0a university\u00a0or\u00a0a\u00a0college\u00a0if\u00a0it\u00a0opposed\u00a0same\u00ad sex\u00a0marriage?<\/p>\n

Soliticitor General Verrilli:\u00a0You\u00a0know,\u00a0I\u00a0\u00ad, I\u00a0don\u2019t \u00a0think\u00a0I\u00a0can\u00a0answer\u00a0that\u00a0question\u00a0without\u00a0knowing\u00a0more specifics,\u00a0but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0certainly\u00a0going\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0an\u00a0issue. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0deny\u00a0that.\u00a0 I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0deny\u00a0that,\u00a0Justice Alito.\u00a0 It\u00a0is\u00a0\u00ad\u00adit\u00a0is\u00a0going\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0an\u00a0issue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With the mainstream media busy celebrating the Supreme Court\u2019s ultimate recognition of a right to same-sex marriage, this didn\u2019t get that much attention in mainstream news outlets. But in the course of researching my book, \u201cLawless,\u201d<\/a> I noticed that Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.\u2019s answer was big news in both the conservative blogosphere and in publications catering to religiously traditionalist audiences. The idea that Regent University or Brigham Young University or the local Catholic university or the many hundreds of other religious schools \u2014 and potentially other religious organizations \u2014 could be put at a severe competitive disadvantage if they refused on theological grounds to extend the same recognition to same-sex couples as to opposite-sex couples struck many as a direct and serious assault on religious liberty.<\/p>\n

In short, many religious Christians of a traditionalist bent believed that liberals not only reduce their deeply held beliefs to bigotry, but want to run them out of their jobs, close down their stores and undermine their institutions. When I first posted about this on Facebook, I wrote that I hope liberals really enjoyed running Brendan Eich out of his job and closing down the Sweet Cakes bakery, because it cost them the Supreme Court. I\u2019ll add now that I hope Verrilli enjoyed putting the fear of government into the God-fearing because it cost his party the election.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Photo by Ed Uthman, Creative Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reason the Democrats lost, argues David Bernstein in the Washington Post,\u00a0is that their words, actions, and policies\u00a0made large numbers of Christians afraid that their religious liberty is in jeopardy. \u00a0So even though they had major\u00a0qualms about Donald Trump, they voted for him in large enough numbers to give him the victory. Bernstein\u2019s point, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36,39],"tags":[455,656,1870],"class_list":["post-26366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-politics","category-religions","tag-christianity-politics","tag-democratic-party","tag-religious-liberty"],"yoast_head":"\nDemocrats lost because they raised religious liberty fears<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The reason the Democrats lost, argues David Bernstein in the Washington Post,\u00a0is that their words, actions, and policies\u00a0made large numbers of Christians\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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