Dear Editor,

… When I read the article on SB101, Religious freedom, my jaw hit my desk. Empowering individuals to sue the government? Police officers patrolling synagogues or mosques? Doctors withholding care?

Are you kidding me?

The left has used the same old talking points, making this bill about gay marriage. It nothing to do with gay marriage and everything to do with religious freedom. If you are alive and breathing these days you have felt the push to silence those who hold faith.

Let me give you some facts. The Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act is the same act passed by President Clinton, supported unanimously in the US House and passed 97-3 in the US Senate. It was endorsed by the ACLU and blessed by the SCOTUS last summer in the Hobby Lobby case. So why would Indiana join 19 other states to pass a RFRA if it is already a federal law? Because it was ruled that the federal RFRA only pertained to the Federal government, not the states. Each state must pass its own. Indiana currently is left unprotected. In fact inmates currently enjoy more religious protection that Hoosiers.

Without a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Hoosiers must rely only on un-elected judges. Religious liberty is too important to leave it up to only the courts.

Whether you are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, gay or straight, a Christian or another religion or no religion at all, this bill is designed to protect the First Amendment rights of ALL Hoosiers from government overreach.

The Indiana Hobby Lobby Bill doesn’t pre-determine winners and losers, but ensures that when the government burdens freedom, our freedoms get a fair hearing to determine whether the government has overstepped its bounds. It is an impartial referee that equalizes the playing field and moderates the power of government over the lives and the minds of Hoosiers

Monica Boyer
Kosciusko County