Religiou$ Freedom Daze

Religiou$ Freedom Daze

There’s some serious shit going down in Indiana the past week or so. Let’s see if we can’t boil this down to what it really is, and I’m pretty sure no one really knows that this really is but this is just one possibility of what it really is (or is not).

Mike Pence is the Governor of Indiana, he is a Republican, and he is considering running for President of these United States. If you want to get the Republican nomination to run for President you need to bow down and suck-up to the conservative base of the Republican party, namely flaming right wing religious fanatics. To hell with liberty, to hell with the separation of church and state, and to hell to the pursuit of happiness (whatever your particular brand of happiness is or is not).

So Indiana passes a “freedom of religion act” and they are not the first state to do so. Governor Pence signs the bill into law, not the first governor to do so.  Then all hell breaks lose on a scale never before seen when other states have enacted similar laws. Ah, the times they are a changing.

Flaming (and not so flaming) liberals scream about discrimination and bigotry, the media is having a field day covering this, Governor Pence brings new meaning to the term pregnant pause at his news conference, cats and dogs…living together….mass hysteria! Now Mike Pence and his merry band of Hoosier Righties are saying “that’s not what we meant,” “we are going to amend the law,” “everyone just calm down.”

Is this new found tone of inclusion driven by a sign from the heavens above? Has the Indiana state legislature had an epiphany? Has Mike Pence found out he has a gay child? No, no and really no.

So what is this? In my opinion (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t think of this all by myself) it’s the almighty dollar that has spoken to those that govern in Indiana. When it comes down to the nuts and bolts of politics, you can talk social issues until your blue (or pink) in the face, but the minute CEOs from some of America’s largest corporations tell you we are not doing business in Indiana, you better believe that the only color that matters is green, especially to the folks who voted on this law in the first place.

And if you think religion is above the fray when it comes to the almighty dollar, have you heard the one about the Pastor who told his flock that he needs $65,000,000 to buy a jet. And not just any jet, a Gulfstream.  But I digress.

So what’s the lesson here. Some folks say money is the root of all evil. I’m fond of saying that religion is the root of all evil.  In this case, it seems that religious freedom is the root of all evil. But as the case most of the time, money talks and the bull shits on the idiots who thought of this whole thing in the first place. Amen.