The Real Origins of the Religious Right

Having failed in their efforts to stem the legalization of same-sex marriages, leaders of the religious right have now fastened on legislation that will discriminate against gays and lesbians by allowing businesses to claim “religious objections” to serving same-sex couples. In so doing, the religious right is reclaiming the discriminatory practices that surrounded its emergence as a political movement in the 1970s.

On Feb. 20, the Arizona Legislature approved a bill, S.B. 1062, that would have allowed business owners to assert that their religious beliefs prevented them from doing business with gays, lesbians and others they deemed unacceptable because of the business owners’ religious convictions. Under the provisions of the bill, for example, a restaurant would have been entitled to refuse to cater a same-sex wedding or a photographer would have been within her legal rights to cancel a contract upon learning that the marriage was for two people of the same sex.

The Arizona legislation, which passed largely on party lines, was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. Similar legislation, however, is under consideration in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio, Kansas, Mississippi, Idaho and South Dakota. At the very least, you have to wonder about the quality of education in these states.

Lawmakers pushing such legislation apparently have never heard of Jim Crow. Let’s review.

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