Family Research Council hate group President Tony Perkins is ever so pissed at Ohio Gov. John Kasich somewhat moderate tone on the subject of religious liberties at the recent GOP Presidential debates after he said that companies should not be allowed to deny services based on their religious beliefs.
“Religious institutions should be able to practice the religion that they believe in. No question and no doubt about it,” Kasich said when asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt if he could trust Kasich as much on religious liberty as the rest of the candidates.
“If you’re in the business of selling things, if you’re not going to sell to somebody you don’t agree, okay, today I’m not going to sell to somebody who’s gay, and tomorrow maybe I won’t sell to somebody who’s divorced. If you’re in the business of commerce, conduct commerce. That’s my view,” Kasich said.
Well Perkins is incensed at Kaisch’s remarks and sent out the following email blast and money begs.
In one of the more stunning moments of the Buckeye’s campaign, Kasich took direct aim at people like Aaron and Melissa Klein, who were ordered to surrender their First Amendment rights as a “price of doing business.” The young Christian parents of five have suffered through the shuttering of their bakery, a $135,000 fine, and years of costly court battles, all because a handful of Oregon tyrants feel as Kasich does: that the government should be able to punish Americans who believe differently about marriage than the radical Left. In his talk Wednesday, Governor Kasich pulled back the curtain on what his administration would do to stem the tide of this religious hostility: Nothing. It’s time for Christians to get over their convictions, he argued. “I think frankly,” he told the audience in Charlottesville, “our churches should not be forced to do anything that’s not consistent with them. But if you’re a cupcake maker and somebody wants a cupcake, make them a cupcake. Let’s not have a big lawsuit or argument over all this stuff. Move on. The next thing, you know, they might be saying if you’re divorced you shouldn’t get a cupcake.”
Move on? From what? The Bill of Rights? Our deeply-held beliefs? We already knew a Kasich administration wouldn’t defend marriage (“the Court has ruled,” he insisted), but who could believe that it would continue the Obama’s war on religious freedom? Amazingly, what the governor advocates is licensing the same discrimination against Christians that this coercion is supposed to spare others from. In the meantime, no one is suggesting that any person — homosexual, divorcee, or adulterer — be denied service at a sandwich or cupcake shop, hotel room, or anything else. That’s a convenient — and patently false — line of the Left. If the governor had familiarized himself with the stories of these shop owners before attacking them, he would know that people like Barronelle Stuzman actually offered to sell unarranged flowers and other goods to the same-sex couples in question. What they object to is being forced to use their God-given creative skills and talents in an event that violates everything their faith stands for.
As usual Perkins left out the fact that the Klein’s broke an Oregon state reasonable accommodation law and not a Federal law and had NOTHING to do with First Amendment rights and that the $135 K fines came out of $750 K+ in crowdfunding donations. They were represented pro bono by Alliance Defending Freedom and that they have made a fortune from the FRC and otheranti-gay hate groups in speaking fees.
Cakes and floral arrangements. That’s quite a hill to take your stand on, Tony old chap.