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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Grand Canyon State of Mindlessness

SB1062 permits the "exercise of religion." The second article of SB1062, which currently sits on Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's desk awaiting a signature, defines the "exercise of religion" as the "practice or observance of religion, including the ability to act or refusal to act in a manner substantially motivated by a religious belief , whether or not the exercise is compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief."
I'm surprised the obvious gets scant mention: SB1062 literally allows any citizen legal justification of ANY CRIME. I understand the law is meant to primarily allow businesses and wedding photographers to withhold services from the LGBT community, but one could argue that ANY act is motivated by a genuinely held religious belief.
Basically, SB1062 allows fundamentalist Christians--clearly who the law is meant to appease--legal justification to own slaves (Exodus 21), kill those who work on the Sabbath (Exodus 31), kill non-virgins who marry (Deuteronomy 22), kill children of sinners (Ezekiel 9), among a slew of other travesties. For instance, a jealous husband harboring bloodlust could repeatedly stab his wife's secret lover, provided the victim had ever mowed his lawn on a Sunday. The defendant's savvy attorney could highlight Exodus 31 and declare that his devout client was merely serving god's commandment.
Legal chaos awaits.
If Arizona adopts SB1062, the Grand Canyon state must also adopt the golden rule--treat others as you would like to be treated--as the official state religion.































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