Are We At War?

It threatens the fabric of our communities, the health of our public square, and the endurance of our constitutional governance.

It is a war against the propositions in the Declaration of Independence.

It is a war against the spirit that motivated abolitionism.

It is a war against the faith that motivated the Civil Rights struggle.

It is a war against the soul of countless acts of charity.

It is a war against the conscience that drives social change

It is a war against the heart that binds our neighborhoods together.

It is a war against America’s best self, at America’s best moments.

Do you know what war Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is talking about? Maybe this will help…

It is a war -- a silent war -- against religious liberty.

Do you know of any law that attacks a religious institution? I don’t.

The Huffington Politics wrote,

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) delivered a scathing attack on the Obama administration at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library Thursday night, saying an “onslaught of lawsuits based on anti-discrimination” laws amount to a “silent war on religious liberty.”

“These days we think this diversity of belief is tolerated under our law and Constitution," Jindal said. "But that’s wrong. This diversity of belief is the foundation of our law and Constitution. America does not sustain and create faith. Faith created and sustains America.”

So he seems to consider when the courts find that state laws violate the equal protection that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranties that this is somehow attacking the Constitution. When judges, some of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, have found that when you treat different groups of people from others groups is wrong.

He is against anti-discrimination laws that say that you must treat equally because he wants to discriminate against people and somehow these laws are tearing the country apart by preventing them from practicing their religious. I see nothing in the laws that say they cannot worship and practice their religious.

What I see are laws that say that in a secular world you have to treat everyone equally, that if you open a business that you cannot put out a sign that says “No Blacks” because of your religious beliefs. Just like you cannot put out a sign that says “No Jews” or “No Handicapped People” and claim a religious exemption. The Bible says that, “No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed” But somehow these Republicans think it is all right to discriminate against gays, lesbians, and trans-people.