-By Warner Todd Huston
On Monday Georgia Governor Nathan Deal vetoed a religious liberty bill that would stop state authorities from forcing Christians to participate in gay marriages, but one of the “reasons” Deal said prevented him from signing the bill is fraught with a pretzel logic he can’t possibly believe.
In the Governor’s view, HB 757 was “discriminatory.” Instead of protecting religious freedom, Deal claimed it only served to oppress gays. Worse, he said despite clear examples of such coercion in other states, since it’s never happened in Georgia then the law isn’t needed.
Of course, the law was written to head off the sort of state-sponsored coercion and curtailment of religious liberty seen in other states, not necessarily a law meant to correct what has already happened in the Peach State. The fact it has happened in a number of other states was plenty enough reason to try to prevent it from happening at all in Georgia.
In any case, Deal goes on to note how religious liberty is one of the first principles of the founding of the country. The founders, Deal said, “made it clear that those liberties [religious liberties] were given by God and not by man’s government. Therefore, it was unnecessary to enumerate in statute or constitution what those liberties included.”
He then went on to indulge some truly absurd pretzel logic that is so tortured even he can’t possible believe it…
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Governor Nathan Deal’s Dumbest Claim to Quash Religious Freedom”