Hysteria is a "potent and reliable weapon" when it comes to inciting the masses, as was the case with Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, according to National Review Editor Rich Lowry, who penned a piece in
Politico about the Hoosier State's controversial legislation.
"Rarely has one side had so few facts on its side and gotten such results through sheer repetition of the word 'discrimination' and through lurid, fantastical denunciations," wrote Lowry, noting that "it's easy to win" when hysteria is your toolbox.
In signing the Indiana law a week ago, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said it was designed to ensure religious liberty was fully protected under Indiana law. It would make it illegal to "substantially burden" citizens, businesses and associations from following their religious beliefs.
Outrage that the law would make it open season on discrimination on gays and lesbians – there were threats of boycotts from people and corporations across the country – quickly led Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to hold a news conference where he said he would seek legislation to "fix" and "clarify" the law.
Indiana's law mirrors the federal law of the same name, as well as those enacted in other states, and says that one can't substantially burden a person's exercise of religion unless there is a compelling governmental interest at stake and it is pursued by the least restrictive means, Lowry explains.
They are rarely successfully invoked, he said, offering an example of a Native American who uses eagle feathers in a ceremony. The national frenzy that the law will lead to an assault on the LGBT community is just not the case, he writes, chiding not to let facts muddy the narrative.
"It is currently legal for a business in most places in Indiana to turn away gays, but there is no evidence that anyone does it," according to Lowry. "Even if business owners were so inclined, they wouldn't be able to make a credible defense of themselves on religious grounds, and it would be horrible for business.
"As soon as a local cupcake store puts out a 'Gays Not Allowed' sign, it might as well padlock its establishment and hand the keys over to the competing cupcake shop across town."
The lone example cited as "hostility to gays," according to Lowry, was a Walkerton, Indiana pizza parlor whose Christian owners said they did not want to provide pizzas to a gay wedding.
"So, the hypothetical gay couple in Walkerton that wants hypothetical pizza, bread sticks and jalapeño poppers served at its hypothetical wedding reception will have to get them delivered by some place other than
Memories Pizza," writes Lowry. "Is this really like the Jim Crow South?"
While the Indiana law will have little impact in the state, Lowry predicted that "the larger consequences are enormous."
"If past is prologue, the Left's steamrolling of RFRA will only be a way station on the path to a more far-reaching assault on Christian groups, colleges and ministers who hew to traditional views of sexual morality," he said.
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