After caving to pressures from major companies like Disney and
Apple that they would boycott his state, Georgia’s Republican Governor Nathan
Deal vetoed a bill that would protect clergy from being forced to perform same-sex
“weddings”.
Though LGBT activists insist they do not want to violate anyone’s
religious freedoms, the vetoed Free Exercise Protection Act (H.B. 757) would
have also specified that religious organizations do not have to rent out their
facilities for such a ceremony, nor do they have to hire anyone if doing so
would violate the group's sincerely held religious beliefs about human
sexuality.
Politicians like Hillary Clinton love to remind Christians that
she supports our “freedom to worship” within church grounds (they don’t ever say they
support our Constitutional freedom of religion, a big difference), but now LGBT
protectionist laws are invading the grounds of the church and
directly seek to force those inside the church to go against their beliefs.
What stands out so vividly here is the power of the dollar. Just
as Indiana lost an estimated $60 million in tourism revenues in the wake of its
Religious Freedom bill episode last year, states like Georgia, North Carolina and others
are facing economic boycotts from major players like the NFL, soft drink companies, airlines,
movie studios and the like. Facing economic losses of this magnitude, governors
are trembling under the powerful hand of Big Business, which itself trembles under the power of the consumer, especially the 18-34 demographic, the group most likely to support LGBT legislation despite, perhaps unbeknownst to them, that such legislation is increasingly at the expense of religious rights. Businesses are of course fearful of mass boycotts by this group and other consumers.
But consider what might happen if governors of all 50 states
were to face similar religious freedom legislation and didn’t cower to economic threats. For
every state that signed Religious Freedom bills into law that simply protect
private citizens from being forced to violate their faith (or in North Carolina’s
case, to protect citizens from sharing a public restroom with someone who could
be pretending to identify as a different gender) some economic loss may occur
at the onset. For instance, the NFL may have moved the Super Bowl out of Georgia to another state had Deal signed the bill.
Yes, that would be a big loss initially for Georgia.
But as state after state were to sign into law basic religious
protections (which simply enforce the Constitution, by the way), the NFL is going to still want to have a Super Bowl. Apple is still going to want to sell phones everywhere. Disney will still want to make movies. What would these organizations do if all 50 states had religious freedom bills?
Maybe if governors stiffened their spines and stood up against economic bullying, eventually the bullies would back down. After all, it's not cheap to relocate headquarters, and companies no longer offering their products or services in a state would take a big revenue hit as well.
As for consumer boycotts, perhaps it's up to Christians to not let the few control what most of us believe to be a violation of the Constitution. Imagine if all Christians and supporters of religious freedom were to stop using the products or services of companies that didn't support religious rights. I bet it wouldn't be long before these companies reversed their positions. In other words, let's use the power of the dollar to work for freedom, not against it.
On the other hand, keep in mind what happened when Chick-fil-A was hounded because its founder voiced support for traditional marriage. Mass boycotts were called - but supporters outnumbered the boycotters and record sales were made. In other words, maybe businesses should look more closely at how mass amounts of Americans actually feel about the issue before voicing their threats to depart.
If the businesses did make good on their word, though, and left the state in question, at the very least, it would create an opening for entrepreneurs who would be more than willing to take on the market share for products and services abandoned by businesses who don’t want to fight for religious freedom.
Maybe if governors stiffened their spines and stood up against economic bullying, eventually the bullies would back down. After all, it's not cheap to relocate headquarters, and companies no longer offering their products or services in a state would take a big revenue hit as well.
As for consumer boycotts, perhaps it's up to Christians to not let the few control what most of us believe to be a violation of the Constitution. Imagine if all Christians and supporters of religious freedom were to stop using the products or services of companies that didn't support religious rights. I bet it wouldn't be long before these companies reversed their positions. In other words, let's use the power of the dollar to work for freedom, not against it.
On the other hand, keep in mind what happened when Chick-fil-A was hounded because its founder voiced support for traditional marriage. Mass boycotts were called - but supporters outnumbered the boycotters and record sales were made. In other words, maybe businesses should look more closely at how mass amounts of Americans actually feel about the issue before voicing their threats to depart.
If the businesses did make good on their word, though, and left the state in question, at the very least, it would create an opening for entrepreneurs who would be more than willing to take on the market share for products and services abandoned by businesses who don’t want to fight for religious freedom.
It's of course an overly simplistic speculation, but as I see it, it could be a win-win for both religious freedom and capitalism - the very two things that helped make America great in the first place.