Cheers To You, Indiana, For Setting Our Political System Back A Hundred Years!

If you assumed that my title to this post was dripping with sarcasm, you would be 100% correct. The second thing you might be thinking is, "Okay, Lisa, but did it really set us back a hundred years?" Yes, but actually it set us back even further. Would you like to know why? It's a little thing in the Establishment Clause of our Constitution which basically outlines the Separation of Church and State. Interesting. It's like our founding fathers knew it would be a horrible idea to let religion dictate matters of the State. Indiana was like, "Oh that silly thing in our constitution? It's outdated. Our bigoted views on homosexuality though is so this century." If you're clueless as to what I'm talking about I'll give you a short overview. Recently, Indiana passed SA101- otherwise known as the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The funny thing is that we already have a Free Exercise Clause in our constitution that protects religious freedom. So what's the point of SA101?

Basically, Indiana wanted to find that law that would make homophobia and discrimination legal on the basis that such things infringe upon the individual's religious beliefs. At this point you have to be thinking, "Alright Lisa, stop pulling my leg. This is awful and it can't be true." Sadly, it is true. We officially live in a country where someone can openly discriminate against other people based upon their beliefs and can't be touched in court because of this law. I want to see this as a positive thing that can further protect the rights of the individual, but all I can focus on is how this law will be used to harm. The first case that this law was implemented on ruled that it was legal for a pizza parlor to refuse to cater a gay wedding because it went against their religious beliefs. Where does it end? Since we have to recognize the person's religion what happens when religion becomes an excuse for assault or murder? Where's the line? You can't say "It's okay to discriminate openly, but assault is too far." What if the defendant uses religious freedom as their excuse? Laws like these are harming our already shaky political system. If we continue to allow harmful laws like these to be implemented, we'll in turn harm more citizens. When does this ridiculousness end? We should be a nation of tolerance and not use our beliefs as a weapon against people we might not agree with.