If you needed proof that America has lost it corporate mind, here are five compelling examples.
1. In New York City, Cooper Union College has decided to remove all "gender markings" from its bathrooms.
As reported by The Guardian, "Last fall, the oldest building on the Cooper Union campus underwent a sudden renovation. A group of students, agitating for their transgender classmates, stripped the words 'men' and 'women' off the doors of the Foundation Building's restrooms."
But rather than discipline the unruly students, "the Cooper Union administration this month moved to remove the gender designations from all the bathrooms on campus by taking down the rest of the men's and women's signage from bathrooms."
Goodbye, men's and women's bathrooms!
The school's website is actually boasting about all this, with the homepage headline declaring, "DE-GENDERED RESTROOMS ATTRACT INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION."
2. In Illinois, a Christian businessman has been fined $80,000 for his faith, and that's just the beginning.
Writing for the Illinois Family Institute, Laurie Higgins explains that, "Another Christian business owner has been persecuted for his faith. Jim Walder, owner of an Illinois bed and breakfast, has been fined $80,000 by the Illinois 'Human Rights' junta (also known as the Illinois Human Rights Commission) for refusing to rent his facility to homosexual couple Todd and Mark Wathen for their civil union ceremony."
I recall reading somewhere that religious liberty was one of the very foundations of our nation, but hey, that was a long time ago, and this is today, right?
Higgins continues, "Even more outrageous, the Illinois Human Rights Commission has ordered that Jim Walder '[o]ffer the Wathens access to the facility, within one year, for an event celebrating their civil union.' You read that right. This unelected, quasi-governmental commission has mandated that Jim Walder not only pay a fine for not accepting a request that violated his religious beliefs but also to offer to violate his religious beliefs. Such a mandate clearly violates Mr. Walder's constitutionally protected religious liberty."
Not only, then, was Walder found guilty of a punishable offense for simply practicing his faith, but he was fined the ridiculous amount of $80,000, as if this couple literally experienced almost $100,000 in personal damages. What's more, he is now being told that he is required to violate his faith and host a homosexual civil union celebration.
3. In Wisconsin, a Catholic university has extended the suspension of a tenured professor for expressing his commitment to the academic freedom of students to express their Catholic moral values in class.
In November 2014, after Cheryl Abbate, an instructor at Marquette University, informed a student that he could not express his opposition to same-sex marriage in class, encouraging him to drop the "Theory of Ethics" course, political science professor John McAdams blogged his disapproval in reasonable and rational terms. In response, rather than disciplining the instructor, Marquette suspended McAdams, now extending his suspension until he apologizes. (As in the just-cited Illinois case, discipline is not even enough; there must be coercion.)
David French, writing for the National Review, writes, "My former colleagues at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) are right to label the forced apology 'an age-old inquisitorial tactic used to violate freedom of conscience through compelled speech.'
Thankfully, the professor has refused to apologize, and French concludes, "I would say that it's astonishing that a Catholic university punish a professor for defending the right of students to advocate the church's teaching on marriage, but politically correct nonsense is par for the course even (especially) at many religious colleges. McAdams should be applauded—and supported—for his lonely, courageous stand."
4. In Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina, two governors and one attorney general reject common sense and religious protections, selling out to political correctness.
First, it was Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal who caved in, deciding to veto a bill that, asexplained by Ryan Anderson, "would have safeguarded clergy from having to officiate same-sex weddings, prevented faith-based organizations from being forced to hire someone who publicly undermines their mission, and prohibited the state government from discriminating against churches and their affiliated ministries because they believe that marriage is between a man and a woman."
To add insult to injury, earlier in the month, Gov. Deal pointed to the ethics of Jesus to justify his actions.
In Virginia, Governor Terry McCauliffe vetoed legislation "aimed at protecting opponents of same-sex marriage, saying it would legalize discrimination of the LGBT community and hurt the state's economy."
He stated, "We cannot have fear and persecution, people being demonized, we're not going to tolerate that."
By doing so, he fosters the persecution and demonizing of Christians, bowing down at the altar of homosexual activism rather than honoring the constitutional rights of Virginians to enjoy their religious liberties, claiming that protecting those liberties would hurt the state's economy.
And in North Carolina, after the state legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory overturned Charlotte's infamous bathroom bill, simply requiring people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their birth certificate, the ACLU launched a lawsuit in response. Attorney General Roy Cooper, himself a gubernatorial candidate, refused to defend the law, despite his responsibilities as Attorney General to defend the laws of the state.
Cooper, claiming that the law was a "national embarrassment," said, "We've got to remember here the overriding concern that this new law provides for broad-based discrimination."
All clear, Mr. Cooper. If we believe in gender distinction and want to keep men out of women's bathrooms and locker rooms, also keeping the door closed on heterosexual predators who will cause that law to their advantage, we are guilty of "broad-based discrimination."
5. The NBA has threatened to relocate the 2017 all-star game from Charlotte to another city because North Carolina wants to keep men out of the ladies' rooms, and the governor of New York has forbidden state-related travel to North Carolina.
As stated by Sister Toldjah on the Independent Journal Review, "This is not a result of genuine concern; it's a result of the manufactured outrage machines that have worked together in the past to pressure sports leagues and corporations to get out 'in front' of an issue that they, in reality, really don't care much about (until they face the prospect of negative PR from the left and the media)."
Toldjah points out that the NBA agreed to locate the all-star game in Charlotte in 2015, meaning before the overturned Charlotte bill was ever passed. Weren't they collaborating with bigotry then?
Toldjah also writes that "it's particularly confusing to be lectured on 'equality' by an organization that is expanding its reach into communist China since 2004, the same China that jails and murders political dissidents and which, for decades, forced women with more than one child to abort any pregnancy after the first one."
Indeed, the same can be said for many other companies, including Apple, which regularly threatens states like North Carolina the moment they stand for social sanity and religious freedom, yet have no problem working with countries like Saudi Arabia that execute homosexuals.
Oh, the irony.
And speaking of irony, good old Atlanta, located in a state whose governor just betrayed millions of people of faith, has offered to host next year's game should the NBA choose to relocate.
How congenial and gracious of them.
And we can't forget New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, joining the mayor of San Francisco in banning non-essential state travel to North Carolina for the terrible sin of keeping men out of women's bathrooms.
God have mercy on America.
Michael Brown is the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire and is the president of FIRE School of Ministry. His newest book is Outlasting the Gay Revolution: Where Homosexual Activism Is Really Going and How to Turn the Tide. Connect with him on Facebook at AskDrBrown or on Twitter @drmichaellbrown.
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