Religion, Agnosticism, Human Rights...and Arizona

I've written two articles about Kansas' attempt to pass a refusal of service bill.  Last week, Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle (R) killed that legislature's proposed bill when she announced that it would not be presented to the Senate for a vote:  http://whateyethynk-politics.blogspot.com/2014/02/quick-fact-update-refusal-of-service.html

Refusal of service proposals have been introduced in other states, among them Ohio, Mississippi, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arizona.  I was naive enough to hope that these prejudicial bills would evaporate before being awarded serious consideration, as happened in Kansas.  Sadly, I was wrong.

Yesterday, both houses of the Arizona legislature passed their own refusal of service bill, one that would allow any business to deny service to a group or individual if that business owner, manager or single employee felt that serving the group or individual would run counter to their religious beliefs.  The bill passed the House with a vote of 33-27, with only three Republicans voting against it. Earlier in the day, the bill passed the Senate along strict party lines--17 Republicans voted "yes", 13 Democrats voted "no".

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) vetoed a similar bill last year; but that was during a stand-off on Medicaid expansion.  It is unclear if she will sign this new bill.

Democrats called the bill "state-sanctioned discrimination".  Senator Steve Gallardo (D) said, "You can't argue the fact that (the) bill will invite discrimination." 

 Senator Steve Yarbrough (R) said the bill protected the U.S. First Amendment.  

Josh Kredit, legal counsel for the conservative Center for Arizona Policy, an organization that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, said the bill was necessary because "We see a growing hostility toward religion."

what eye thynk:    For over 200 years, the religious and the non-religious have co-habitated in this country. It has not always been a completely peaceful co-habitation; but it has never risen to the level of animus that we see today. Fault can be found in all camps: conservative and liberal, religious and non-religious.  Lawsuits filed by the far left over the display of nativity scenes on public property and the banning of Christmas carols during public school holiday concerts have always seemed particularly petty to me.  (Once you eliminate Christmas and Hanukkah songs from December concerts, there doesn't seem to be much point to them.  How many versions of Let it Snow or Frosty the Snowman can high school audiences take?) 

The recent hijacking of America's conservative voice, (remember when "Conservative" could be interpreted simply along fiscal differences?), by the religious right seems to be focused on ignoring the U.S. tradition of co-habitation in favor of forcing everyone to acknowledge their card-carrying Christian superiority, a status they seem to believe justifies their right to rule over the rest of us in all aspects of life and law.

My truth:  I am an agnostic.   I sincerely believe there is a supreme being somewhere, one who identifies as neither male nor female, a being I dare to call God.  I believe in an afterlife, though my interpretation of it as a physical heaven or as an earthly re-birth changes hourly.  I grew up in a Christian family, but I can no longer profess to believe in a virgin birth or to worship Jesus as any more than a historical figure, a beloved teacher who was charged (by the supreme being?) with bringing the knowledge of one God to a world ruled by myth and polytheism. I believe he never expected his message to end up splitting his God into a trinity or of creating new myths surrounding his own nativity.  

I believe the Bible is a great book holding every lesson man will ever need on how to live together with love and peace.  It also contains a lot of junk added by men, with all their inherent weaknesses.  (Really, why would Jesus say it was wrong to eat shellfish?)  I believe many of the lessons contain the essence of Jesus' teachings.  I do NOT believe it contains his exact words.  The Bible was written hundreds of years after Jesus' crucifixion.  Nobody's memory is that good.

As a religious outsider, I question the right's claim to victim-hood.  Does the left currently harbor "hostility toward religion?"  Perhaps, but it does not take the form of attempting to force evangelicals to enter into same-sex marriages or Catholics to use birth control.  And while the conservatively religious want to make second-class citizens of anyone who does not live within the strict parameters of their narrow biblical interpretations, the non-religious and religious liberals simply ask for their differences to be accepted. Acknowledge that we have the right to equal space on this earth, and any hostility--perceived or genuine--would simply vanish.

The U.S. Constitution is the foundation of our laws; it is not an addendum to the Bible.   Freedom of Speech is not a right granted only to one side of an argument.  Denying the rights of one group and saying you are protecting the First Amendment makes no sense.  The First Amendment was written so that ALL sides have a voice, ALL voices have worth.  

And would someone please explain to me how my agnosticism or support of same-sex marriage and abortion rights would jeopardize an evangelical, conservative Christian employee's promise of heaven if he were to be asked to put extra pickles on my Subway foot-long? 

If my lunch is all that stands between that employee and his heaven, his link to eternity is weak indeed.