THE SEAN HANNITY SHOW

Selective Moral Outrage Religious freedom has dominated the news this week, with Indiana and now Arkansas implementing Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRA). But the liberal outrage over gay rights is selective, at best. First, it is important to understand that it was Bill Clinton in 1993 who signed a federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The bill was introduced – get this – by Chuck Schumer. At the time of the signing, Clinton made the following remarks: “We all have a shared desire here to protect perhaps the most precious of all American liberties – religious freedom.” “The free exercise of religion has been called the first freedom – that which originally sparked the full range of the Bill of Rights.” “Let us never believe that the freedom of religion imposes on any of us some responsibility to run from our convictions – let us instead respect one another’s faith.” What, exactly, is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act? As explained by the Weekly Standard: “RFRA allows a person's free exercise of religion to be 'substantially burdened' by a law only if the law furthers a 'compelling governmental interest' in the 'least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.'” But in 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that the RFRA didn't necessarily apply to the states. Since then, 20 states, including Indiana, have enacted a state version of the RFRA. In fact, Illinois passed its own RFRA when Barack Obama was a state senator; in an unusual act, he decided to vote “yes” instead of “present.” So what's the big deal with Indiana's RFRA? It must be different than the federal version or the other states in order to cause such outrage, right? Wrong. The only difference is that the media has been able to paint a false narrative and liberals are all-too-willing to go along with it. The narrative is that laws such as this give cover to openly discriminate against gays by, for example, allowing businesses to reject gay customers. As John McCormack at the Weekly Standard points out, “The point of RFRA is not to discriminate against gay Americans. It is supposed to prevent the government from discriminating against religious Americans.” But that language is lost of hyperventilating, hypocritical liberals. Why do I say hypocritical? Because the same liberals, feminists and members of the LGBT community who are getting all worked up over RFRA are virtually silent when it comes to the brutal oppression and discrimination of gays throughout the world. Take, for example, the treatment of gays and lesbians under Sharia law where they are killed and where women's rights aren't protected. I'm all for political activism, but perhaps these same outraged liberals can join many of us conservatives who have been trying for a long while to point out the atrocious ways women, minorities and gays are treated in many Islamic countries and societies. That's why I call it selective moral outrage. AUDIO: Gov. Mike Pence on Religious Freedom Act In case you missed it. Yesterday on the show, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined Sean on the NewsMaker Hotline to talk about his state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Pence is outraged at the way the Indiana religious liberties law is being misconstrued. You can listen to the entire interview here.