Night of the Living ENDA

By Gina Miller
AmericanClarion.com

Just like the flesh-eating zombies in Romero’s classic 1968 horror picture Night of the Living Dead, the sinister “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” (ENDA) won’t stay in the grave.  Although attempts to add “sexual orientation” to the list of federally protected people date back to the early 1970s, ENDA was first spawned in 1994 and repeatedly re-introduced and killed in subsequent Congresses.  Back in April, it again became undead in the Senate, as S. 815, by pro-homosexual Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and 55 cosponsors, two of whom are Republican:  Susan Collins (ME) and Mark Kirk (IL).  In the House, we can “thank” openly homosexual Congressman Jared Polis (founder of ProFlowers) for its latest incarnation as H.R. 1755.  A vote in the Senate is now imminent.

ENDA’s requirements and prohibitions for employers are “justified” under the umbrella of previous civil rights legislation, creating a bogus equality between innate characteristics like race and sex and the perverse behavior of homosexuals and other sexual deviants.  This proposed legislation equates homosexual behavior with skin color in an apples-and-oranges “civil rights” fiasco.  Why a fiasco?  Because this horrible legislation will strip fundamental, God-given, constitutionally-protected rights from many American citizens while it conflates unnatural, unhealthy, immoral homosexual behavior with “civil rights.”

ENDA would be a devastating, unconstitutional blow to American liberty, essentially killing our God-given rights and freedoms of religion, speech and association.  It is anti-business.  It would require employers, under penalty of federal law for violations, to accept open homosexuals, cross-dressers, “transgenders” and whatever other sexual degeneracy they can come up with to “federally protect.”  ENDA prohibits discrimination “on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Proponents of ENDA will argue that it does not strip religious freedom, because of the section exempting religious organizations, which states:

This Act shall not apply to a corporation, association, educational institution or institution of learning, or society that is exempt from the religious discrimination provisions of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964…

Yet, the courts are all over the road on what constitutes a “religious organization” and the tests for such a determination.  There is no guarantee that this clause will protect any such organization.  Besides, this proposed legislation will not exempt owners of secular businesses who have moral or religious objections to hiring openly homosexual or cross-dressing people.

Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute wrote:

Every decent human opposes illegitimate discrimination based on objective characteristics that carry no behavioral implications, conditions, for example, like race, sex, or nation of origin. Many people, however, believe that making distinctions among behaviors is not only a legitimate human activity, but an essential one—essential, that is, for any moral society, particularly one in which religious liberty is jealously guarded.

ENDA will curtail religious liberty by prohibiting Americans from making distinctions between right and wrong actions even when those distinctions reflect deeply held religious convictions of orthodox Christians, orthodox Jews, and Muslims.

Our founding fathers knew that religious liberty was essential to a free society. It must never be subordinated to a manufactured civil liberty to engage with absolute unfettered freedom in acts of sexual perversion. And it is not unconstitutional to allow one’s religious beliefs to shape either business or political decisions. The Left does it all the time.  

Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver wrote in an e-mail notice:

This radical legislation potentially puts Christians on the wrong side of the law and is one of the most dangerous bills to religious freedom ever considered in Congress!

… The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), slated for consideration in the Senate later this week, is anti-free speech, anti-religious freedom, and anti-business. 

ENDA is yet another job-killing measure being advanced by liberal “progressives” who are once again placing their radical agenda above the national interest.

Intended to give special protection to homosexuals and cross-dressers, the bill would further burden small businesses and muzzle those with a biblical worldview.

… Morally and legally, ENDA will force, under penalty of law, Christian, Jewish, or Islamic business owners to adopt a secular-humanist viewpoint, ignoring all matters surrounding sexual morality while making hiring and firing decisions.

ENDA would compel business owners with 15 or more employees to leave sincerely held religious beliefs at the workplace door and submit to the demands of the homosexual activist lobby.

If ENDA passes, Christian-owned, for-profit businesses employing more than 15 people will be forced to accept applications from individuals whose behavior is in violation of the owners’ religious tenets.

ENDA also kills the 11th Amendment, stripping state immunity from federal lawsuits based on the strings attached to federal taxpayer money.  As the bill is worded:

A State’s receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, to a suit brought by an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under subsection (d).

The danger to our freedoms from this proposed legislation cannot be overstated.  The pressure on our legislators to support it is massive.  Misinformation and lopsided polling is being used to convince congressmen that there is wide public support for this legislation.  One senate committee report touts ENDA’s “broad support,” citing polling and numerous major corporations and “religious” organizations that are on-board with it.  The report quoted business leaders who claim that ENDA would be “good for business and good for Americans,” a damnable lie.  The report begins:

Overwhelming majorities have indicated that they believe that LGBT Americans should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities, and that they support ENDA. In a 2011 poll, 73 percent of voters expressed support for LGBT workplace nondiscrimination protections. Indeed, 89 percent of Americans believe such protections already exist.

I didn’t bother to dig to find out who conducted the “polling,” but I have no doubt the wording of the questions had everything to do with that “overwhelming majority” support.  If people truly understood the real freedom-robbing results of this legislation, it would have nowhere near that much support.

It is essential that we bombard our senators and representatives with demands to reject this evil legislation.  I realize the battle for the soul of our Republic is fierce, and it seems we are facing an endless flood of wickedness coming from our elected and unelected “leaders,” but we must not grow wearing in resisting their efforts to “fundamentally transform” our great nation.  Let them hear from you on ENDA.  It is critical.