title:  West Virginia GOP Push Bill To Literally Give Conservative Christians Ability To Break The Law At Will
text: If West Virginia Republicans have their way, conservative Christians will be able to break any law they don t like and use  religious freedom  as a defense.Outrageous legislation known as Senate Bill 11 would create anarchy across the state by giving conservative Christians the ability to ignore any law they think doesn t have a  governmental interest of the highest magnitude that cannot otherwise be achieved without burdening the exercise of religion. For instance, bigoted Christians could argue that they can ignore anti-discrimination laws that protect racial and religious minorities as well as gay people. They could also argue that they can ignore sexual harassment laws, traffic laws, gun control laws, environmental laws, or any other law they don t like and all they have to do is claim that such laws impede their  sincerely held  religious beliefs.SB 11 states: Exercise of religion  means the sincere practice or observance of religion or religious conscience. It includes, but is not limited to, the ability to act or refuse to act in a manner substantially motivated by one s sincerely held religious beliefs or religious conscience, whether or not the exercise is compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief.This is perhaps the most dangerous piece of legislation Republicans have ever dreamed up.It s basically a get out of jail free card for Christians who think they should be able to hide behind their Bibles to get away with disobeying the law.According to civil rights advocate Tim Peacock,SB 11 would literally create a new class of rights superior to all other protections afforded at the local, state or federal level. It would create a special class of rights wherein one civil right comes into conflict with another, religious belief would always prevail.As Peacock further explains, it would fall to government to  offer a compelling state interest in violating the person s beliefs. In short, West Virginia would be turned into an anarchy as conservatives use their  Christian  beliefs as an excuse to violate the laws while everyone else has to follow the law to the letter since they wouldn t have these new special rights.And you can bet that conservative lawmakers across the country are looking at passing the same legislation in their own states as they continue to desperately try anything to replace civil law with biblical law. This is what religious tyranny looks like. Featured Image: Wikimedia 