The
Growing Republican Governors’ Hall of Shame
Published in Marietta Daily Journal April 3, 2016
Governor Mike Pence of Indiana,
Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, and now from Georgia, the reddest of red
states, add Governor Nathan Deal. This
past week Gov. Deal announced he would veto House Bill 757, a measure that
would guard the religious liberties of Georgia’s pastors, churches, and
religious organizations.
Say it ain’t so, Governor. I grew
mighty fond of you in 2010 when we both were running for state wide office and
rubbing shoulders at many a candidate forum.
In Hart County it was just you and me.
No other candidates showed up.
That meant that we both got to talk longer to our audience, but we also
got to talk more to each other.
Privately you listened to my ideas about education and I listened to
your ideas about the state at large. You
struck me as a total social conservative.
Well, if the governor is still a
social conservative, he isn’t acting like it.
After a two-year legislative debate on religious liberties, a bill has
been carefully honed and passed by both houses of the General Assembly. In vetoing it, Mr. Deal sides with the
corporate bullies and the homosexual lobby, those who gave us same-sex
marriage.
Why do you suppose the General
Assembly wasn’t hesitant to pass the bill during an election year? It’s because they wanted to stand with the
folks. In passing the bill just four
months before their next election, both the House and the Senate obviously felt
they were correctly representing their constituents.
I, for one, am getting tired of
corporation big shots, the Chamber of Commerce, and the homosexual lobby
running the show in Georgia. Just how
many people are we talking about when we say “the LGBT community”? Do lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and
transgendered souls constitute the majority of voters in Georgia? Do they drink more Coke than the rest of
us? Buy more Home Depot lumber? Spend
more on ballgames?
To whom does the Georgia Chamber of
Commerce think it owes the most thanks for the business its members get? But, oh, if HB 757 becomes law, the state
will fall apart, the Chamber argues.
Does anyone think Coke will leave Atlanta? Home Depot?
Delta? No, they are all bullies,
issuing their threats and showing no gratitude for their countless customers
who favor HB 757. Viewing the world
through dollar signs, they believe that man can live by bread alone.
For
a sorry dollar, the Chamber of Commerce which used to care about the community
at large, thinks it must run with the zealots of the New Sexuality. You know: those who are now clamoring for
non-gender bathrooms even in public schools.
Those who have successfully re-defined marriage, who defy biology and
physiology, and who create a new victimology every time they turn around. Those who next week will be clamoring for
some other type of sexual aberration we’ve never heard of, plus special laws to
force it on the rest of us.
HB 757 grants ministers the right to
refuse to officiate weddings that are inconsistent with their religious
beliefs. It does not block gay
marriages. It also allows religious organizations
to refuse employment of someone who opposes their beliefs.
The lengths to which the corporate
lions are going in order to bully the rest of us are outrageous. As for the movie industry in Georgia, have
the governor and his corporate buddies given thought to the values most
Hollywood products are spreading these days? Do they read movie reviews or view
movie trailers on the internet? Doubtful. If Hollywood is bringing in dollars, values
don’t matter.
If the beliefs of the LGBT are
deeply held, so are those of Christians whose sacred Scripture forbids
homosexuality. Of course, because
Christians believe what they believe, they are haters.
The list of corporations that are
embarrassed by traditionalist Georgians is endless. That doesn’t bother Cobb County state
representatives Sam Teasley and Ed Setzler.
Both of these good men – who hate nobody – have been fearless in
defending religious liberties against the corporate/ homosexual lobby’s
juggernaut.
Rep. Setzler recently stated, “If
Disney claims to be upset by anything Georgia is doing, I’d assume they’d close
Walt Disney World in Florida because Florida has stronger religious freedom
protections than Georgia. Objecting to
Georgia’s is the height of hypocrisy.”
The Trump phenomenon has been fed by
such actions as the governor’s. But the
fight isn’t over; it will continue.
Meanwhile, I’m changing soft drinks, myself; as well as where I get my
house and garden stuff.
For rejecting the religion of the
New Sexuality, I and many others are now the new heretics.
Say it ain’t so, Nathan. Say it ain’t so.
Roger Hines
3/31/16
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