Knowing that polls show conservatives more concerned about religious freedom than marriage or equality for sexual minorities, Focus on the Family tonight repeated its well-worn protest against religious freedom and the plain truth.
Focus contended that conservative Christians cannot enjoy religious freedom unless they withhold religious freedom from non-heterosexual workers.
For some reason, Focus considers its “digital media director,” Stuart Shepard, an expert on Congressional legislation and federal antidiscrimination law. Many people remember Shepard not as a lawyer or civil-rights champion (he’s anything but), but rather as the Focus dude who prayed for “rain of Biblical proportions” at the Obama inauguration.
Anyhow, Shepard said that any law respecting the economic and religious freedom of LGBT workers (including people of faith) by protecting them from discrimination would “impose a substantial and crippling burden on religious organizations.”
Shepard neglected to tell Focus readers that the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) fully exempts non-profit religious organizations — and that many religious organizations tolerate or affirm their LGBT employees.
Shepard also neglected to explain why Focus does not oppose existing laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of chosen religious identities such as Islam or Buddhism.
Focus on the Family’s selective opposition to religious freedom is sure to win donations, if nothing else, from people who don’t think too hard about silly matters such as, you know, liberty and constitutional equality and all that stuff.
