Print 
PDF
It was a sad day in Louisiana.
Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats, big business and LGBT activists to kill a bill that would have protected individuals and religious institutions opposed to same-sex "marriage."
The proposed law was very clear, stating that its only purpose was to prevent the government from discriminating against a person or a non profit because of their support for traditional marriage.
Governor Bobby Jindal said, "I'm issuing an Executive Order to prevent the state from discriminating against those with deeply held religious beliefs."
A house legal committee of 12 people, including several Republicans, voted 10-2 this week to shelve the bill, effectively killing it and the Order.
Tony Perkins says, "Those ten legislators voted against freedom and against two-thirds of Louisianans who support the Marriage and Conscience Act."
He says, "This is a failure of leadership and goes to the heart of what's wrong with American politics today."
Why would Republicans go on the record in public opposition to the most fundamental value---faith and freedom, that the Party claims to stand for?
Some of the Republicans who killed the bill say they were strong armed by IBM and other big businesses.
Perkins says these elected leaders effectively endorsed government discrimination against individuals and non profits simply for believing in marriage between a man and a woman, "The same thing President Obama believed in just three years ago."
IBM, who is currently expanding in Baton Rouge, had written a strongly worded letter to the newspaper warning that "IBM will find it much harder to attract talent to Louisiana if this bill is passed and enacted into law."
Gov. Jindal strongly supported the bill and said in an April 23 op--ed in the New York Times he did not believe Republican lawmakers would cave to homosexual activists.
He said in the NYT op-ed, "As a nation we would not compel a priest, minister or rabbi to violate his conscience and perform a same-sex ceremony. But a great many Americans who are not members of the clergy feel just as called to live their faith through their businesses. That's why we should ensure that musicians, caterers, photographers and others should be immune from government coercion on deeply held religious convictions."
He was wrong. They caved. Including Republicans. It was a bitter setback for the very popular governor.
Here is a snapshot of how bad it was this week in Louisiana.
State Representative Mike Johnson, Republican, authored the bill. He expected to take a hit from some Democrats, although many Democrats in the legislature supported the bill, but it was a Republican City Councilman in Baton Rouge who went public calling Johnson a "despicable bigot of the highest order."
Johnson said the city councilman has never even met him, and admitted he didn't even read the legislation.
In a recent survey, 67% of likely voters approved of the bill, including 63% of the Democrats.
A few highly funded homosexual activists intimidated and struck fear into the hearts of those politicians, including some Republicans who had no problem putting politics above principle.
Johnson says he has seen the future of religious liberty in America---and it is grim.
God help us.