Not Very Blue of You, Minnesota.

From the "Blue States Gone Bad" file: I heard a report today on Advocate OutQ news that has me steaming. All I keep thinking is that the conservative "patriots" have no clue as to how far they are from the democratic ideals upon which this country was founded. There's this spin-to-downright-twisted mentality that I am not really hearing much about, but I keep seeing it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there's a lot of selfish cake-wanting and cake-eating.

The story was about Lutheran Pastor named Roger Franzen. Apparently, Franzen is (was) a closeted, celibate gay pastor working at the Lutheran High School of Greater Minnesota. Somehow, he was outed, then fired. When he sued, he lost - all the way up to the Minnesota State Court of Appeals. Apparently, in their finite wisdom, the State has decided that, through a "freedom of conscience clause," religious organizations are exempt from the Minnesota Civil Rights law protecting people from discrimination in the workplace. Somehow, this got all twisted around and the winning argument stated that intervening in such a situation would interfere with the separation of church and state. HA! (I say.) Odd it is that their "not interfering" seems to have the same effect as interfering... Perhaps in order to prevent any other such interference, the state folks ought to exempt the remaining "pure" employees of faith-based organizations from taxes on their income (like any state would give up any revenue source...and yes, I checked - Minnesota DOES tax personal income). They should also be denied any other state benefits and rights. Perhaps they should be allowed to drive as fast as they want while doing the work of God. Aaahhh, ramble do I when I get going on such topics. It made sense in my head before I started typing.