(Audio above: Yellowhammer’s Cliff Sims jumps into the religious liberty debate)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In Thursday’s edition of Yellowhammer Radio, host Cliff Sims sounded off on the media’s portrayal of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
“This is a concerted effort by the Left… to force Christians, people of faith, into the closet,” Sims passionately began. “And it’s working.”
As local evidence of this, Sims pointed to a recent television interview with Alabama Sen. Cam Ward (R-Alabaster), who represents one of the most conservative senate districts in the state. When asked what he thought about Alabama having strong religious liberty protections, Sen. Ward said that while his “preference is for marriage to be between a man and a woman,” he believes the religious freedom debate is a “distraction.”
“He danced around the issue like Fred Astaire,” said Sims. “He was horrified. This is a Republican in the most conservative part of the most conservative state in the country and he’s scared to death of the issue.”
Sims went on to describe how Indiana’s RFRA has been grossly mischaracterized by the mainstream media and the political Left.
“This bill says that the state 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,” he said. “It simply allows religious liberties to be raised as a defense in a lawsuit.”
“The hypocrisy and ideological inconsistency of the Left is on full display here,” he continued. “Don’t forget that religious freedom had bipartisan support for decades. Religious freedom was a bipartisan issue until the Hobby Lobby case reminded Democrats that they care more about ObamaCare and contraceptives subsidies than they do about liberty.
“Twenty states around the country have these laws. They’re modeled after the federal law that Bill Clinton signed in 1993; that law passed the U.S. House without objection… Then the Senate passed the dang thing by a vote of 97 to 3. Then, all the sudden 20 years later this is the most important thing happening in the country, this is suddenly going to be the downfall of American culture and society that the government has to show a really good reason for encroaching on your religious liberty? It’s crazy.”
Sims said that while most of the examples the media have used to portray the law as bigoted have included Christians, it has actually served as a protection for people of various faiths. He pointed to three specific examples of a Sikh, a Native American and a Muslims who had each been protected by the law in different situations — one in the workplace, one in a public school, and another in prison.
At the end of his monologue, Sims quoted founding father Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in the The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, “No man… shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities… if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.”
“This is a fundamental principle,” Sims concluded. “The natural rights that all humans were granted by God. That’s why this is not just another political argument… Religious liberty is at the very foundation of (our nation) and it is under attack. And this is nothing more than an effort to get Christians shoved into the closet so they will shut up.”
Check out the entire segment in the audio clip above.
Yellowhammer Radio airs every weekday from 12-1 p.m. and can be streamed live on the show’s flagship station, Superstation 101.1, WYDE.
