As this is being written a third (good ole Mississippi) state in the putatively “United” States has promulgated legislation that allows private parties to deny goods and services to members of LGBT communities if the vendors of these goods and services feel that their religious beliefs would be offended in doing so. One can easily see where this sort of thing is going: religion trumps everything, it is only a few more rhetorical steps to get to the position that the very existence of LGBT people offends religious fundamentalists (as they maintain that same-sex marriage threatens traditional marriage) to it being morally ordained and politically acceptable to deal with them more harshly. There is plenty of historical precedent in several faiths for measures that include extermination. Indiana was the first state to try this manifestation, but the governor rescinded the legislation when under pressure from economic interests that threatened to boycott the state, the same circumstance that North Carolina currently finds itself in. Whether other states contemplating this sort of legislation will choose mammon over God remains to be seen.
Do not think that our government might not be complicit in these machinations. The Alternet[1] on April 8, 2016 reported that:\
Six months after the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Dr. Randall O’Brien, president of Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee, told the local CBS affiliate that “in a changing world, we want to reaffirm who we are, who we intend to be, and establish our identity as a religious school, a Christian school.”
O’Brien was gleefully explaining that the 165-year-old college, established as Mossy Creek Missionary Baptist Seminary in 1851, had just been granted a US Department of Education (DOE) exemption from Title IX regulations, in effect allowing the university to continue to collect federal dollars for scholarships and sports programs despite banning unmarried, pregnant students; women who have had abortions; single mothers; and LGBTQ people from attending classes or working on campus.
This was not Carson-Newman’s first foray into regulating the behavior of students, faculty or staff, or in imposing a set of religious restrictions on those connected to it. Far from it. Prior to obtaining the Title IX exemption last December, the campus code of conduct prohibited “lewd, obscene or vulgar language” or expression that is contrary to “Christian values and principle,” and barred students and staff from engaging in or advocating engagement in “sexually immoral acts, including sexual relations outside of marriage.”
In the interests of full disclosure I have to admit that I once used such a fabrication in my own personal interest. Many years ago I was visiting pyramids on the Giza Plateau and was being importuned by a persistent old fellow to pay him a few Egyptian pounds for a ride on his camel. I have even less sufferance for annoying hucksters than I have for large, smelly beasts. Finally, I replied with feigned solemnity: “I’m sorry, but my religion forbids me to ride any animal larger than myself.”[2] It succeeded. He must have been a good, observant Muslim who, understanding that faith supersedes everything, sauntered off with his “ship of he desert” in the direction of another tourist and soon had her up on his camel for the obligatory photo with the pyramids in the background. Religion does have its uses, even for infidels.
[1] http://www.alternet.org/education/outrage-some-universities-get-taxpayer-dollars-despite-banning-women-who-have-had?akid=14147.231337.GDiVuu&rd=1&src=newsletter1053988&t=10
[2] This story was first reported in Chapter V.3, “The Art of the Hustle; The Sting of the Scam,” in my book, The Stranger is Me: Travels and Self-Discoveries (Trafford, 2007)