I agree with Caleb’s dismay with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s veto the religious liberty bill passed in the state legislature.

While I’ve been at odds with religious liberty bills in other states such as Arizona and Indiana, the bill in Georgia was restricted in the main to  “provide religious officials shall not be required to perform marriage ceremonies in violation of their legal right to free exercise of religion.”

Although I agree with gay marriage, I also believe that the state should not oblige religious congregations to perform them. As I argued last summer shortly after the SC ruled on Obergefell v. Hodges, to do so would violate the separation of church and state and effectively make churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious congregations to be an arm of the state. 

Governor Deal’s refusal to approve these measures have implications for the ability of religious congregations to practice their religion within their own walls. If a modest religious liberty bill cannot gain passage in a conservative state like Georgia then what are the chances for the rest of the country?

Georgians (along the rest of the country) got a raw deal where it concerns religious liberty.