Last Wednesday, the North Carolina state Senate voted 32-0 on House Bill 2, commonly known as The Religious Freedom Bill, which was introduced and passed in less than 10 hours. A controversial bill, House Bill 2 seeks to undo any anti-discriminatory laws already in place, including those at the Federal level, and allow business owners, schools, and governmental agencies to deny people their basic rights to safety and security based on “religious freedom.”

Apparently, there is a mass conspiracy to infringe on the American right of practicing the religion of your choice, which makes bills like this highly necessary since… about summer 2015 when, coincidentally, Marriage Equality was granted by the Supreme Court. Except, there is no mass conspiracy. So why do Republican lawmakers feel the need to assert their White Christianity? Doesn’t the Constitution – that original holy document that this nation is built upon – specifically define a separation of Church & State?

Short answer: Not directly. Long Answer: Get ready for a History Lesson. In The Bill of Rights, those first ten amendments to The Constitution, the First Amendment is what most people point to as a separation of Church & State. However, the First Amendment only states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Congress is not allowed to set a National religion, nor prevent anyone from practicing the religion of their choice – a sentiment that has not reached Donald Trump, apparently, since he wishes to outlaw practicing Islam.

The phrase “Separation of Church & State” came from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 and has stuck in the mind of the public ever since. It is clear that the Founding Fathers intended a separation of Church & State, as any reference to “god” only appears once in the Constitution in the phrase “In the year of our Lord” which was simply the way dates were written at the time. In fact, this radicalization of American religion and politics didn’t really kick off until 1954 when President Eisenhower, afraid of the Communist threat, urged Congress to add “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Then, in 1956, Eisenhower and Congress changed the motto of the United States from “E pluribus unum” – “Out of many, one” which was chosen in 1782– to “In God We Trust” which has appeared on money ever since. Many people point to these as “proof” that our Founding Fathers intended to build a Christian nation, but this idea of a Christian nation has only been around for 60 years.

Now we get to today, North Carolina and Georgia are both pushing “Religious Freedom Bills” through their state senates under the pretense of the “Christian Nation” that our Founding Fathers most certainly did not establish. Both bills specifically target individuals in the LGBTQ* community by seeking to deny Trans individuals the use of public bathrooms that match their gender identity, and allowing business to deny service to patrons simply because they love someone of the same gender.

Its not hard to imagine that in a year’s time, or perhaps even later this year, these bills will also be used to deny services to anyone wearing a hijab, burka, al-amira, or other Muslim headdress. These bills are not here to protect Religious freedom, if they were, they would prosecuting people like Donald Trump who wish to create a database of all Muslims in the US (remind you of anyone?) or this Texas shopping center which put up “No Muslim Parking” signs.

That certainly seems like encroaching on someone’s Religious Freedom. These bills do not seek to protect the faithful, they seek to protect American Christians – and not even that – they seek to protect White, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Bigoted, American Christians.

"But surely there must be some Biblical support for their hatred!" you say. Well there isn’t, and don’t call me Shirley. The Christian Faith is built on a book divided in half – the Old Testament, which takes place before God sacrificed his only Son, a little fellow named Jesus Christ, and the New Testament, which is about the Life and Times of a radical hippie who preached the blasphemous notion that we should all just be kind to each other and was executed for it.

Like The Constitution, The Bible was written during a specific time in a specific cultural context. Part of that cultural context was the lack of the phrase “homosexuality” which was coined in 1892. That means there was no possible way homosexuality appears in The Bible in that context. But Sean, what about sodomy? Like from Sodom and Gomorrah? You ask, grasping at the few remaining straws you can find. Well, Constant Reader, it is true that sodomy is derived from the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah, but that has nothing to do with The Gays, and everything to do with not raping visitors from out of town.

In fact, the only “evidence” of Biblical condemnation of homosexuality comes from the Old Testament which, if you are Truly Faithful, you know is only left in The Bible as historical stories because Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrifice, negating all those sins from before. The rules of the Old Testament no longer mattered once God sent his only begotten Son so forgive and forget – what Jesus preached became the new word of God.

Yet these so-called “Christian Politicians” cling to the Old Testament’s condemnation of same-sex loving (which was never strictly prohibited), yet they turn around and eat pork, wear clothes made out of mixed materials, and probably don’t sell off their daughters like they are supposed to. Not to mention the other horrific things that the Old Testament claims man is supposed to do.

If you’re not pissed off by this yet, you should be. If you are a practicing Christian, these bills are an insult to your faith. Luckily, most people are smart enough to see these bills for what they are – a way for the old white Republicans to deny the change that this Nation asked for and received.

Disney has announced it will boycott all filming in Georgia – which is a big deal as Georgia has the third highest amount of film productions, after California and New York. The NFL, Apple, Hilton, Intel, and even the Georgia Chamber of Commerce have also spoken out against the Religious Freedom Bill. In North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory claimed that hundreds of businesses support his state’s Religious Freedom Bill, but when pressed on the issue, he couldn’t name a single leading business.

Luckily, Georgia’s bill did not pass, but that doesn’t mean that we’re free from this type of discrimination. Call your senator, call your representative, tell them that you will not support a bill that denies basic rights for American citizens and you will not support a politician who wishes to infringe on those rights. Progress never stops marching forward, and you don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of history. Like this white woman, rapping about how terrible it is for Trans teens to use the bathroom of their choice: