AM Joy Panelists Slam Sessions’ Defense of ‘Religious Liberty’
RUSH EXCERPT:
JONES: "So we've seen a shift in about five points more toward allowing businesses- particularly wedding-related businesses to -- allow them to refuse service. However, one of the more important numbers is if you look at African-Americans on this issue, we find among African-Americans who by the way are fairly divided on the issue of same-sex marriage but nonetheless when we asked them about this 63% of African-Americans say that small businesses should not be allowed to refuse service to gay and lesbian Americans even if it's based on their religious objections. I think there we see just the very basic experience that this has echos of lunch counter, you know, refusals and businesses turning away African-Americans. That's in our not so distant past that's going on. One other point I want to make is that there is a slight of hand going on here. If you listen carefully to Sessions' rationale, he talks about protecting people of faith. But I want to sharpen that up a little bit because when Sessions says protecting people of faith, what he really means is conservative white Christians and particularly white evangelical Christians but increasingly that group is an outlier in the country on these issues. They are the only group that opposes -- only religious group that opposes same-sex marriage in the country. White evangelical Protestants are the only religious group now that opposes same-sex marriage in the country and they are the only religious group that strongly opposes- - that wants to allow small businesses to refuse service to LGBT people."
