Last week, Gov. Bobby Jindal put his foot in his mouth — Louisiana boot and all — when he spoke to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation about the silent war on religious liberty.
I urge you not to be fooled. This so-called war is just a fancy way for our governor to scare conservative voters back to his side.
Anti-discrimination laws are not unconstitutional. I think Jindal, along with millions of American Christians, are misinterpreting their own religious documents. The Bible is not meant to be the law of America.
Jindal is advocating for more than tolerance of the diversity of religious beliefs, just as long as the diversity is found in Christian denominations.
Because I am from a southern Baptist and Catholic dominated small town in the Bible Belt, it wasn’t shocking, but he gave supposed golden nuggets of wisdom.
“Yes, finally! I’ve been feeling oppressed as a Christian for years. Now those heathens will surely pay,” they’ll say as they blindly follow him.
What we’re seeing here isn’t a war — it’s propaganda.
It’s best not to delve into things that will upset you, I’ve learned. Don’t read comments online when writers talk about controversial topics, and walk quickly through Free Speech Plaza when the angry Jesus people are yelling.
But read the entirety of Jindal’s speech because this man is the face of our state. Be warned that it tastes as bad going down as it must have when he threw it up.
Opponents of social change have argued since day one that there is a slippery slope and used exaggerations to manipulate their followers into remaining closed-minded.
For instance, the Supreme Court deemed Louisiana’s anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional 10 years ago, but some residents recently fought to keep them on the books.
One Baton Rouge resident who spoke at the Metro City council meeting Wednesday suggested that if we were to allow anal sex in our state, we may as well allow marijuana and eventually human trafficking.
So, logically, if we allow consenting adults to freely have anal sex, we have to allow them the right to smoke weed. Yes, good, I can get behind that. Let’s tolerate the opinion and choices of consenting adults. That’s a fantastic idea.
But connecting the rights to individual choices to human trafficking, and suggesting that the two are related is exactly the slippery slope that Jindal describes. Great argumentation doesn’t rely on logical fallacies such as this.
Don’t be fooled by their dim-wittedness and angry fist shaking, there is a war on religious tolerance. But it’s not Hobby Lobby losing its right to deny health coverage to employees who have differing opinions than their CEO’s.
It’s every day, when a Jewish student wears a religious covering and someone sees and makes a Holocaust joke. It’s the anniversary of 9/11 when my best friend feels like dirt because she wears the same skin as a terrorist. It’s knowing someone who has been cut off from their family because they don’t believe in anything.
American citizens, more than three-fourths Christian, have turned anything that differs from their views into terrorism, That sounds like a war on religious freedom to me.
Louisiana, I offer you my condolences. Our governor has made remarks that will only enrage those already raging. But bear in mind, Jindal’s words don’t carry much weight.
As George Bernard Shaw said, “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
And Jindal isn’t budging.
Jana King is a 19-year-old communication studies sophomore from Ponchatoula, La.