Barkley: Homophobic Alabama rednecks are hiding behind the Bible

Alabama native and former NBA star Charles Barkley told CNN late last week that where he’s from, the “religious nuts” and “rednecks” have a tendency to “hide behind the Bible” to justify their bigotry.

The outspoken sports commentator’s remarks came in response to the controversy surrounding Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which LGBT activists and liberal pundits have claimed codifies discrimination against homosexuals.

“America’s always had a racial problem,” Barkley told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “Now we have a homophobic problem. Any form of discrimination, you have to check it.”

Barkley went on to portray Indiana’s RFRA as a malicious and unprovoked attack on gays.

“Gay people didn’t go after Christians, they came after gay people,” Barkley claimed. “Let’s get that straight. Typically in the South, that’s where I’m from, all of these rednecks hide behind the Bible… That’s one of the reasons the South is behind in everything. They always hide behind the Bible. It’s strictly about discrimination.”

Similar religious liberty laws are on the books in 20 states around the country, in addition to the federal statute. The federal law says that the government cannot “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless it is furthering a “compelling government interest” and acting in the least restrictive way possible. It also allows religious liberties to be raised as a defense in a lawsuit, although the court does not have to accept it as a defense.

They state-level RFRAs are modeled after the federal law, which Bill Clinton signed in 1993 after the U.S. House approved it without objection and the Senate passed it on a bipartisan, 97 to 3 vote.

Although Christians have been thrust to the forefront of the recent debate, the federal RFRA has served as a protection for people of various faiths.

A Sikh federal employee used it in a lawsuit against the government after she was sent home and ultimately fired for carrying a kirpan, a blunt ceremonial dagger carried by individuals baptized into the Sikh faith. The family of a Native American elementary school student used it to protect the child’s ability to wear his hair long in accordance with his faith, in spite of a school rule against boys wearing long hair. A Muslim prisoner in Arkansas also used the law to protect his ability to wear a long beard while incarcerated.

This is the second time in recent weeks that Barkley publicly expressed his opinion on a controversial political or social issue. Late last month he said people were criticizing President Barack Obama’s NCAA bracket “because he’s black.”

(h/t al.com)