California Legislature Moves to Openly Persecute Christians

The far-beyond unhinged, leftist dominated legislature in the State of California is considering two bills – which seem to enjoy wide support – that would deny Christians basic freedoms long assumed under the US mode of government, and pose the threat of transitioning from tacit persecution of Christians to open, state-sanctioned persecution.

The first law, strongly supported by Planned Butcherhood, would make it illegal to videotape or otherwise record the proceedings in any kind of health-care establishment.  Doctors are freaked out, as the bill seems to be so broadly worded that even normal doctor patient communications – like e-mails of test results – could fall under the bill’s ban.  But the point of the law, of course, is to make it impossible for Christian pro-life groups to further humiliate Planned Barrenhood by exposing the evil they so regularly commit (evil even a sexular pagan culture has a hard time abiding):

AB 1671, which has been backed by Planned Parenthood, would criminalize the publication of confidential interactions with state-licensed medical personnel, including abortionists and clinic staff, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine per violation.

Introduced by Los Angeles Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, the bill has received criticism from both pro-life activists and those who worry about its potential to chill free speech and investigative journalism.

Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, said the Planned Parenthood-backed legislation is an effort to decrease transparency at the nation’s largest abortion provider.

“For years, undercover journalists have documented Planned Parenthoodemployees covering up for sex traffickers, failing to report child sexual abusers, and trafficking in baby body parts,” Ms. Rose said in a statement. “Rather than be more transparent with the public, Planned Parenthood wants to make it a crime for the media to publish evidence that it might be doing something illegal.”

Ms. Rose pointed out that since Planned Parenthood receives public funding in order to keep its doors open, the public has a right to know what goes on behind those doors.

Silly Lila.  If it’s a non-political or a conservative agency that receives federal funding, then it must be scrutinized to the hilt.  But if the group is a member of the radical left coalition in this country, then the scrutiny doesn’t apply, because they’re one of the good guys!  And the good guys – anyone who is left wing – never, ever, do anything wrong!  Thus, Hillary’s entire candidacy in the face of acts that would have gotten any normal citizen a lifetime sentence in the federal pen years ago.

The other bill seeks to deny private religious schools and universities any sort of religious exemption or freedom to practice their faith (so long as they be Christian, I’m sure muslims will be exempted), by providing legal means for, say, an atheist who wants to cause trouble at a Christian university, to sue the university because a professor opens class with prayer or because the university requires attendance at religious services.  Of course, this won’t apply to any Catholic universities, as those kinds of open acts of faith went out the window decades ago!  Even more, the bill apes the Obama administration’s definition of “freedom of religion” down to a very narrow scope, basically being, an act of worship that takes place in private.  No other practice of religion is viewed as being constitutional.  So, the only educational acts that would meet any kind of religious exemption for compliance with radical leftist social engineering experiments – for now – would be the training of ministers.  And you can be sure that won’t last long:

Even worse, critics argue, Lara’s bill might make it impossible for private schools to operate under any faith-based principles.

This is because SB 1146 dramatically tightens the criteria under which a school can cite freedom of conscience in making curricular and administrative decisions.

California’s education code already explicitly prohibitsdiscrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, but exempts “an educational institution that is controlled by a religious organization if the application would not be consistent with the religious tenets of that organization.”

Under Lara’s  legislation, that exemption would shrink dramatically, covering only “certain educational programs and activities of a postsecondary educational institution that is controlled by a religious organization.” The exception would apply to programs that “prepare students to become ministers of the religion, to enter upon some other vocation of the religion, or to teach theological subjects pertaining to the religion.”

As a result, administrators at faith-based colleges worry that they will soon have no legal recourse to make decisions based on their religion.

“The problem is that it provides a course of legal action for any student that feels they’ve been discriminated against in any other setting,” Jackson said, adding:

So if this bill passes, and a student comes to our school and says, ‘I feel really uncomfortable that chapel was mandatory, or that the professor opened class in prayer, or with community service’—that is a required part of our faith commitments—the bill as written creates a private right of action, meaning that the student would have the right to sue a school over what faith-based schools consider a core part of our spiritual life.

Additionally, in a move that mirrors the Department of Education’s May release of documents revealing colleges that had appealed for religious exemptions to Title IX discrimination requirements, SB 1146 would require faith-based schools to disclose their religious exemption publicly on campus and in all promotional materials, including brochures, letters to high school applicants, and tours for new or prospective students.

This is plainly an attempt to either bring recalcitrant, conservative Christian educational establishments to heel, by forcing them to adopt the sexular pagan agenda (as Catholic schools and universities did, en masse, starting in the 60’s), or to destroy them through lawfare.

Either way, the handwriting is increasingly on the wall, at least in leftist states like Kalifornia: observant Christians are not welcome, and you will be crushed.