Freedom of religion: marriage and guns

Content warning:  Smattering of salty language, overuse of parenthetical asides and at least two shenanigans.

There are “freedom of religion” bills cropping up all over the bloody States. From where I sit, the spirit of these bills is gives anyone the ability to holler “God hates fags” if they do not want to

a. sell their crappy wedding cakes to the gays
b. do the job their asses are paid BY MY TAXES to do
c. allow the little children to come unto them
d. put out the damn fire already

Google it, they’re all out there.

One such bill is Oklahoma HB 1125 that, as of today, is a hot damn mess that even those voting on it have no idea what the hell their vote will accomplish. Jack Jenkins over at ThinkProgress has the best reporting on HB 1125 that I’ve seen so if you’d like to hop on over and check it out I’ll be here when you get back. No really, I encourage it.

Cool, glad you made it back. Now where was I?

Oh yeah – the whole point of these shenanigans purports to be the protection of “religious freedom” so good Christians don’t have to betray their conscience (or damn their souls to hell) by filing a legal document that they believe supports an abomination. I say purport of course because a lot of us know it is just more political posturing that manipulates people’s fears and uses the humanity of others as pawns. But I digress.

The reason I called you all here today is this.

If the upright citizens brigade is all about re-writing laws to establish the rights of one social enclave of one religion (establishment clause be damned) over the rights of other citizens to equal protection under the law (unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness be damned) then cool, lets run it all the way up the flag pole and look at it from a different angle.

Let’s say that the core principle of all these shenanigans really is about respect for an individual’s religious beliefs.

Let’s pretend for the sake of this post that there are folks in Georgia weeping and gnashing their teeth about the right of civil servants to do their job AND practice religion at the same time. (Just joking, we are not pretending).

Next imagine that a pacifist whose conscience is informed by religion, say a Buddhist (nah, that won’t fly here, because you know, Christians)…how about a Quaker or Mennonite (yes ma’am, they’re a part of the big ole Jesusy landscape) is an employee of the Dekalb County probate court in Georgia.

Did you know that in Georgia, probate courts issue both marriage and firearms licenses? True story!

So there sits Belinda Buddhist or Quincy Quaker when a gun license comes strolling in the office.

Discuss.