In my last blog I said that every freedom-loving Hoosier must ask this one BIG question before the next legislative session:

“Will you protect my God-given religious liberties by opposing all efforts to create special protected class status for sexual orientation and gender identity?”

So why are sexual orientation, gender identity (SOGI) nondiscrimination ordinances bad public policy and dangerous threats to religious liberty?

Proponents of these types of bills wrongly claim that they are necessary to prevent discrimination. The problem is, we have zero evidence of widespread discrimination. While hypothetical examples or subjective feelings of being “unsafe” are offered, there simply is no objective data pointing to widespread discrimination among those practicing homosexual behavior. Gays enjoy the same rights every other person has under the rule of law. Laws are drafted to correct a problem or to redress a grievance. The problem is we have no problem!

So why the alarm?

Because the passage of SOGI’s create serious problems for Christians seeking to live out their faith in the marketplace. SOGI’s are used by the gay community to punish those who won’t celebrate their homosexual lifestyle and to coerce those whose religious beliefs will not allow them to participate in a same sex “marriage.”

The most recent example of this type of anti-Christian bigotry involves Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the now-closed Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Finding them guilty of sexual orientation discrimination for refusing to bake a cake to celebrate a same-sex wedding, they were ordered to pay $135,000 in “emotional damages” to the complaining lesbian couple.

To add insult to injury, they were also slapped with a gag order commanding them to “cease and desist” from “publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying, or causing to be published … any communication to the effect that any of the accommodations … will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination be made against, any person on account of their sexual orientation.”

Is this the kind of ant-Christian bigotry we want in Indiana?

Should Christian businesses be forced to violate their consciences to make a living?

Should our government be able to coerce people into violating their belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman?

If our Republican super-majority fails to lead, this is the perverse and tyrannical new world coming to Indiana.