The Religious Freedom Restoration Act - A Nutshell View

Man, has the Religious Freedom Restoration Act stirred up a shit-storm in Indiana or what? There's protests, boycotts and a lot of pissed-off people everywhere! While liberals are claiming that Indiana's version of the bill is nothing more than a license to discriminate (specifically against gays), conservatives see it as a protection of religious freedom.

This whole thing has gotten quite confusing. So, let me try to explain it layman's terms.....

Once upon a time, a group of American Indians were sitting around the camp fire hitting the peace pipe and chewing on cactus. Everyone was laughing, joking and having a helluva time when all of a sudden Uncle Sam showed up. Our observant Uncle quickly noticed that the Indians were acting a bit peculiar. Little Big Stone was trying to channel Jimi Hendrix through a bizarre air-guitar ritual while Chief Sitting Still mumbled incoherently with his palms facing skyward. All the while, through a thick haze of smoke, Tokahontas seemed to be levitating over top of the campfire.

Uncle Sam, looking very confused, demanded to know what why everyone was in such a jovial mood.. After filling his lungs with one final hit of the Mexican cactus, Parties With Wolves politely offered the pipe to Uncle Sam.

Uncle Sam declined the invitation by holding up his hand and asking, "Holy Toledo Batman, what kind of drugs are you guys on?!?"

"Peyote, you silly white man.", replied one glassy-eyed tribe member.

"Peyote?", asked Uncle Sam. "Do you guys know that stuff is a illegal?"

A chorus of laughter reverberated around the campfire as Chief Sitting Still explained, "It may be illegal in your world, Samuel. But in our culture, it is part of a sacramental ritual. You see, Parties With Wolves might appear as if he's auditioning for a Cheech and Chong movie but, in reality, he's experiencing a sacred religious movement. So, if you would, please escort yourself out of here and go organize a pow-wow with your lawmakers."

And that's essentially how the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was born.

Let us jump ahead to 1993 which is when the RFRA was signed into law by President Clinton. And before anyone lines up on either political side, keep in mind that the RFRA was almost unanimously supported by Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Basically, this law gave Native Americans the right, under religious principles, to smoke all of the peyote they wanted without fear of prosecution from the federal government.

And just when you might think that everyone's happy......

In 1997, it was found that the federal government had actually exceeded it's constitutional authority by imposing the RFRA on the states. So, this opened up the doors for states to pass their own versions of the RFRA. (To date, twenty states have these "local" RFRA laws and several more are in the process of passing them.)

Kicking this thing into another gear was the Affordable Care Act (aka Obabacare). You see, part of President Obama's controversial law required companies to provide contraceptives (aka birth control) to their female employees. One company in particular, Hobby Lobby, refused to be a part of this based on religious principles. As a result, a lawsuit was brought forth (Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby) which ended with a landmark decision by the Supreme Court which gave companies the green light to use religion as factor in what they will or will not do.

Are you confused yet? Yeah, me too....

Complicating things even more is the increasing number of gay marriages. You're probably thinking, "Wait a minute, Ken. We went from hallucinogenic drugs to Obamcare and now we're talking about gay marriage?" See, you are paying attention. Anyway, when gay couples started showing up at businesses to prepare for their weddings, a few of these businesses had hissy fits. For instance, a bakery* (or was it a pizza shop?**) refused to make wedding cakes for a gay couple because they claimed that homosexuality, specifically gay marriage, violated their religious beliefs. The media latched onto the emotional reaction and ran with it. And basically this is what started the wheels in motion for the big controversy that we've seen in Indiana over the past few weeks.

This is a very complicated issue, folks. One person might think that the gay couple could simply go to another bakery (or pizzeria). But is that really fair? On the other hand, is it really fair for the government to force someone to go against their religious principles? There's a fine line between infringing on religious freedoms and discrimination. If a business owner doesn't happen to be fond of homosexuals, can he simply thump his bible and legally kick them out of his store? And how far will things go? If a Muslim beats his wife, can he be claim that he's perfectly within his rights according to Sharia Law?

As you can see, things have snowballed quite a bit since the peyote party around the campfire......

kw

* http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/os-cut-the-cake-bakery-gay-fight-20150403-story.html

** http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/04/04/more-than-842k-raised-for-indiana-pizzeria-after-uproar-over-stance-on-religious-freedom-law/