Comments
by Java Mann
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Sue
Me
I haven’t heard from Pat
Robertson is quite a while. I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise, as he’s
a busy guy, what with running a million-dollar TV network, and owning a
multi-million dollar diamond mine in South Africa. I’m amazed he still
finds time to beg for money on the 700 Club. It came to my attention today
that he’s still active, but that he's just changed his tactics a bit. |
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Under the guise of the benign
sounding American Center for Law and Justice he started filing nuisance
lawsuits against cities and states that have the audacity to file laws
extending basic civil rights to homosexuals.
Consider please, the case
of Rick and Connie Hile of Henderson Kentucky. They are suing the city
of Henderson with the help of the ACLJ, because they believe the city’s
Fairness Ordinance requires them to rent to sinful homosexuals. They hope
to overturn the ordinance which requires fairness in employment and public
accommodations, because they feel requiring them to rent to a homosexual
is an infringement of their religious beliefs. Obviously, neither the Hiles
nor the ACLJ have bothered to actually read the ordinance. If they had,
they would have seen that the ordinance only applies to rental properties
with five or more units, and the Hile’s two single-family properties are
not covered by the ordinance. The case was dismissed.
The ACLJ has also been active
in a similar suit in Anchorage Alaska, where two landlords felt their religious
rights were being curtailed by an ordinance that required them to rent
to unmarried couples. This case was also dismissed. Back in Kentucky the
ACLJ are still active, supporting a Christian gynecologist (Barrett Hyman,
and NO, I’m not making this up) ecause his religious beliefs prohibit him
from hiring a homosexual, placing him in violation of the Fairness Ordinance.
What is happening here is
that this Right wing political group, working under the tax-exempt façade
of a religious organization, is engaging in the age-old practice of blackmail.
They are filing nuisance lawsuits against communities that dare to pass
civil rights ordinances that extend these rights to everyone. Armed with
the 700 Club’s deep cash reserve, they can engage in long, drawn out and
expensive law suits against small communities that have limited funds.
They do this even though they know they have no case and will eventually
loose, because it will intimidate other communities into toeing the line
to avoid a similar experience.
I accept the concept of religious
freedom, and the right to practice as you see fit, but in the practice
of your religion you may not infringe on the rights of others. If you own
rental property and choose to rent it out, your religious freedom does
not grant you the right to discriminate regarding who you will rent to.
If you own a business and hire on a workforce, your religious rights do
not give you the right to discriminate against potential employees.
Presently, the US is litigation
happy and nuisance lawsuits are more the norm than the exception. I accept
this because I know of no other system that is superior to it. But it infuriates
me that these cases which are so obviously unintelligible ever make it
to court. It also angers me that a group of bigots, acting in the name
of religion, can act in this way to force their limited views on others.
JM
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