I believe in freedom, I just don’t believe in the interpretation of freedom as many western and southern states interpret it. I live in Arizona, a state that is at the center of the ‘freedom’ question. The state legislature recently passed a bill that allows businesses to refuse service to homosexuals on the grounds that it is against their religion. In other words, the bill legalizes discrimination as religious freedom.
I wonder if people realize the weapon they wield in religion. Since its inception, the concept of faith has been used to wage war and design restrictions around the way we live our lives. The truth and beauty of religion, in my humble opinion, is that we all speak to our higher power in our own way and those who choose not to follow our way are not a threat, but instead an opportunity to see faith from a different angle and to learn new ways of seeing reality or, at the very least, deepen our resolve that what we believe to be true is in fact true.
I’m terrified by this new development because it weaponizes religion in a way it hasn’t been in quite a long time. In the cause of freedom we are suddenly prepared to justify homosexual discrimination. What next? Racism?