The ultra conservative Christian group in Arizona that was responsible for pushing the recent legislation to allow discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs is called the Center for Arizona Policy. Cathi Herrod is the group's president. Other recent legislations sponsored by this group are Criminalizing Assisted Suicide, "Women's Health Protection Act" (which allows police to inspect abortion clinics without warning and without warrant), Corporate Scholarship Tax Credit (which gives tax breaks to corporations that give money to school tuition organizations), and Property Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions. You can find out more about the organization and their successful legislations at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/arizona-anti-gay-bill_n_4860817.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
What is happening here, under the banner of "religious rights," is a constant process of trying to use political influence to require the people of a state to conform to specific behaviors promoted by their Christian faith. In effect, they are trying in every way possible to make Arizona a Christian state. Of course, the first amendment to the United States Constitution that supposedly gives them their "religious rights" also prohibits the formation of a national religion and, thereby, also prohibits the formation of a state religion. In the United States, we have the right to pursue any religious faith, including pursuing no religious faith. This means that citizens of the United States must be tolerant of others who pursue different faiths.
Consider the case of abortion. Whether an individual approves of abortion or not, it remains a law of the land that women have a right to pursue an abortion within a certain time period. Yet religious groups of several varieties, because they abhor the idea of abortion from within their own religious beliefs, have done everything in their power to prevent women from pursuing their legal rights. Where is tolerance?
I always thought that tolerance and love were mainstays of Christian beliefs, but a large number of Christian groups behave as though tolerance means only welcoming those who behave your way. That, of course, is not tolerance but rather dominance.
