Michigan state lawmakers Cindy Gamrat, Gary Glenn, and Todd Courser are openly theocratic, regularly expressing their desire and their intention to bring their religion into government, using their personal interpretation of the Bible to make laws and policy in our state. But the three of them have a mentor in this effort: 7th District Congressman Tim Walberg. A former Baptist minister and Bible salesman, Walberg has always been an opponent of the idea of separation of church and state.
His theocratic desires recently got national attention during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on a rather unprecedented decision by Washington, D.C. Republicans to overturn a D.C. law that prevents women from being discriminated against by their employer based on their reproductive decisions. The “disapproval” of the law would be the first time this has been done in D.C. in over 20 years.
“This is a continued attack on religion and a person’s 1st Amendment rights of freedom of belief,” said Walberg. “It is clearly taught by Jesus the Christ himself for those of us who believe in him — and I understand and I accept the fact that there are those who don’t — but he said render unto Caesar what’s Caesar’s and God what’s God’s, and I think that’s an important consideration for us on this committee tonight.”
Amen and pass the bread.
What Walberg is saying is that, if a woman decides to use a legal procedure like have an abortion to end an unwanted pregnancy or in vitro fertilization to get pregnant, it is a violation of a business owner’s 1st Amendment rights to prevent them from firing that woman if they want to. One of the sponsors of the bill, Diane Black of Tennessee, issued a statement suggesting that an employer should be able to fire you simply because you believe in a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion. “This coercive measure would ban pro-life organizations in DC from even considering a job seeker’s views on abortion as a condition of employment,” she said.
The irony in all of this is that the so-called “Founding Fathers” who Walberg and his pals hold in such reverence were theists who firmly believed that religion and government should not be intertwined and that the religious views of one group should not be imposed on others through government actions. This is, of course, the exact opposite of theocrats like Walberg.
Walberg has a very good opponent running against him now: Gretchen Driskell. Let’s make sure she has the resources to beat this “Preacher in the House”, Tim Walberg, by making a donation today.
