The American Founders believed religious liberty to be so essential that they enshrined it in the First Amendment. Today, however, it is treated as only another flashpoint in the culture wars. Simply look at the reaction to Georgia’s H.B. 757, a religious-freedom bill that my colleagues in the legislature and I voted to pass on March 16.
In light of the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., Georgia’s lawmakers wanted to be clear that our state’s protections for religious liberty have not changed. The bill would have protected clerics from adverse government action for their refusal to perform marriages or sacraments that conflict with their religious beliefs. Religious organizations would have been protected in their hiring practices and from adverse government action if they refused to allow the use of their property or provide services in violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs.
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