An Open and Shut Kasich

The First Amendment is 225 years old, so you'll have to excuse America for not wanting to "get over it." But that's exactly what Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) is calling for in his strange campaign to abolish religious liberty. "What I'd like to say is, just relax," said Kasich on CNN. "If you don't like what somebody's doing, pray for them, and if you feel as though somebody is doing something wrong against you, can you just for a second get over it? You know?"

While liberal activists haul families into court, shutter their businesses, vandalize their property, and threaten to take away their homes, jobs, and life's savings, not many people feel like the GOP's most unpopular presidential candidate. "If we just kind of calm down here, I think things would settle down." Christians are calm. And things haven't settled down yet. Still, the governor insists, it's time for men and women of faith to swallow their values and "make a cupcake!" Sound familiar? It should. President Obama shares the same view. Fortunately for voters, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) isn't about to let the march of intolerance steamroll his freedom -- or yours. "I suppose King George could have given the same message: 'get over it, while I strip your freedom,'" Cruz fired back at Kasich, "But thankfully the American people answered that demand with musket shot."

It's one thing to hear an LGBT activist say that Christians' freedom has to give in this clash against sexual liberalism, but a Republican candidate for president? Cruz is just as surprised as the rest of us. "I don't think the American people are willing to get over our basic liberties. We fought a bloody revolution to protect our religious liberty," he told the Conservative Review. "This nation was founded by men and women fleeing religious oppression, and seeking a land where every one of us could seek out and worship God almighty with all of our hearts, minds and souls, free of the government getting in the way."
Of course, the idea of exercising our First Freedom didn't used to be so controversial. In 1993, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act sailed through Congress almost unanimously. "Today, when states pass laws virtually identical to that original legislation," Ted went on, "the modern Democratic Party is so radical, so extreme that it's decided that there is no room for religious liberty. That's radical. That is un-American. Religious liberty is something that protects all of us. It applies to Christians, it applies to Jews, it applies to Muslims, it applies to atheists."
DISCLAIMER: Tony Perkins has made an endorsement in his individual and personal capacity only, and it should not be construed or interpreted in any way as the endorsement of FRC, FRC Action, or any affiliated entity. 


Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.