Why Do Corporations Oppose Religious Liberty and Safety?

“Why are businesses and sports leagues suddenly championing leftist ideologies that oppose not only religious liberty but even legislation that protects the safety of women and children in restrooms?”

That’s the question Georgia state senator William Ligon poses in the Wall Street Journal. He and other state legislators sought to protect the religious freedom of their constituents (and defund Planned Parenthood), but the governor, a fellow Republican, rejected their attempt.

Gov. Nathan Deal, a professing Christian, called the bill discriminatory. He doesn’t believe pastors, Christian business owners, or organizations need protection from a retaliatory government for refusing to participate in homosexual “weddings” or barring biological males from using women’s restrooms.

Sen. Ligon wrote (emphases added):

North Carolina finds itself targeted over a common-sense new law blocking cities and counties from forcing businesses to give transgender people access to the bathroom of their choice. If a restaurant owner wants to allow transgender people to use their preferred bathroom, that’s no problem. The new law simply prevents local governments from forcing business owners to adopt such a policy.

Yet the Tar Heel State now faces an onslaught. More than 120 corporations have demanded the law’s repeal, and the Obama administration is reviewing federal aid to the state. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has banned travel there by state employees, even as he promotes travel and trade with communist Cuba.

Why are businesses and sports leagues suddenly championing leftist ideologies that oppose not only religious liberty but even legislation that protects the safety of women and children in restrooms? They are systematically and deliberately misrepresenting these legislative efforts. Despite the threats, Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi signed a religious-freedom bill on April 5, and legislators in Missouri and Tennessee are considering similar measures. It is past time for Georgia to join them.

Why are corporations flouting decency and pressuring states to invalidate the will of the people? Don’t they care about Christians who buy their products? It’s like a parasitic poison, slowing killing the host. When the host dies, so does the parasite.

A country founded on Christian principles is now a godless, teeming mass of degeneracy, its anti-Christian character eroding the foundation that protects liberty for all its people, including the godless. Once religious liberty is gone, it won’t be long before others follow.

Too many business leaders are embracing a politically correct social agenda, trying to force every state and every citizen to walk in lockstep. The private economy would be foolish to reject America’s heritage of liberty, which has powered the greatest engine of economic success in history. And if corporations want the benefits of a business-friendly environment, with lower taxes and less regulation, they would do well to recognize who enacts such policies: people with center-right social values, not the hard left.

Photo credit: Michael Gray (Creative Commons) – Some Rights Reserved