From Anti-Gay to Pro-Freedom

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http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/ericcmiller/7586/from_anti_gay_to_pro_freedom/

February 12, 2014 2:28pm
Post by ERIC C. MILLER

Writing for Buzzfeed last fall, McKay Coppins suggested that culture warriors on the Religious Right have recently shifted from offense to defense, dropping the banner of “Family Values” and replacing it with “Religious Freedom.” Dramatic shifts in public opinion polling on certain social issues—gay rights in particular—have forced conservative Christian activists and politicians to adjust their rhetorical strategies.

So after decades spent publicly declaring that homosexuality is an abomination, now they advocate the freedom of private citizens to believe that homosexuality is an abomination. For members and allies of the LGBT community, this should perhaps signal a step in the right direction. But current legislation demonstrates how a defensive commitment to “freedom of conscience” can conceal policy changes that are actually quite offensive.

The “Marriage and Religious Freedom Act,” introduced in the House by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), pledges to protect individual religious practice from government sanction. Both iterations of the bill proceed according to the logic that Christians are a persecuted class in the United States, and both rely on select anecdotal evidence to conjure an implicitly gay threat to Christian freedom. In this, Labrador, Lee, and their co-sponsors tap into political energies generated by the polling shift cited above—as public sympathies moved toward those long-abused by the Religious Right, the Religious Right quickly appropriated the mantle of the abused.

Speaking about his bill at the Heritage Foundation this week, Labrador employed the now common technique of advancing progressive terminologies toward regressive ends. He claimed that current federal policies facilitate “a climate of intolerance and intimidation for citizens who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” which echoes comments made by Lee last December. According to Lee, the Act “protects the rights of individuals and organizations from religious discrimination by the federal government. Those who believe in the traditional definition of marriage deserve respect and tolerance. It is critical that we clarify the law to ensure that their fundamental civil liberties are not at risk.”

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