Do you feel oppressed?

So, in a pair of recent columns, I got on my soapbox a bit about two of the three proposed changes our state legislators would very much like to make to the Arkansas Constitution, and why I think both are very bad ideas.

Well, here’s a look at the third one, and I will give you a bit of a spoiler and tell you I like this one even less.

Issue No. 3, the third and final ballot issue the State Legislature will be putting on the ballot in the Nov. 8 election, was sponsored by State Senator Jason Rapert, a Republican out of Bigelow. If you’re thinking you’ve heard his name before, it might be because he just loves to introduce bills, including one to ban abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, one to ban unmarried and same-sex couples from adopting, a U.S. Constitutional amendment declaring marriage as between a man and a woman, and my personal favorite, a bill that would authorize the use of nuclear weapons in the war on terrorism in the Middle East. (All of these proposals failed, by the way) His latest effort to find relevance comes in the form of a proposal titled, “A Constitutional Amendment to Create the ‘Arkansas Religious Freedom Amendment’” and if that’s too confusing, know that what it would do is make sure that “government may never burden a person’s freedom of religion except in the rare circumstance that the government demonstrates that application of the burden to the person is in the furtherance of a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest.”

Glad we cleared that up, right?

Continued on Page 5 VIEWPOINT (cont.)

So, I really like the idea of Freedom of Religion. I like it so much, I’m glad it’s already in, you know, the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, in the First Amendment. So what’s the deal with this so-called “Religious Freedom Amendment” that Rapert is proposing?

Well, it’s basically a “God says I don’t have to do that” clause that he would like to add to the Arkansas Constitution to make it easier to get around laws that prevent discrimination against all the same people he’s been trying to keep subjugated with all of his other proposals, namely women, minorities, LGBT+ people, and basically anyone who isn’t an uppermiddle-

that I have to allow everyone equal rights, I can maybe avoid it if is restricts my religious rights. Given the timing, I’d also bet it has something to do with mask mandates and vaccines as well.