GREGG DOYEL

Doyel: 'Religious freedom' bill demands listening not shouting

Gregg Doyel
gregg.doyel@indystar.com
The NCAA says it will examine how the RFRA will affect its employees and future events.

South Carolina isn't overrun by white supremacist bigots. That's what I believe based on a combination of wishful thinking and visits over the past 20 years to Columbia, S.C., where my mom lives. But the South Carolina statehouse does fly the Confederate flag, and that flag does provide comfort to the handful of bigots, however large that handful is, who live in that state. Which is why the NCAA refused for more than a decade to put any of its championships in South Carolina, because the NCAA understands this: Anything that promotes even the hint of bigotry shouldn't be allowed by our elected officials.

Which brings me to the religious freedom bill that was signed Thursday by Gov. Mike Pence here in Indiana.

Indiana is not overrun by religious bigots. That's what I believe based on a combination of wishful thinking, scores of visits here since 1997 and my time working for The Indianapolis Star since October. But our governor just signed a bill that could provide cover to the handful of bigots, however large that handful is, who live here.

Which is why the NCAA, the NFL, the NBA and other business entities — big and small, sports and otherwise — have some serious thinking to do about doing business with, and giving business to, our state.

Is that what we want?

This is me being as logical as I can about an issue that's so emotional it's dividing our state like nothing has since the same-sex marriage issue of a year ago, which divided our state like nothing had since the right-to-work bill came along two years earlier.

We sure do get divided a lot, don't we?

Mike Pence, Indiana Governor, speaks to press members following his signing of the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, March 26, 2015.

Speaking of wishful thinking …

Maybe what people can do — people on each side of the political aisle – is stop screaming and start listening. And here I'm begging not just you, the reader, but also my own newsroom. You think Indianapolis is split by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act? You should see The Star. Some of the best people in this building, my friends, are horrified by the RFRA. Some of the best people in this building, my friends, support the RFRA and are hurt by the insinuation that support for this bill is tantamount to bigotry.

So I say again, to people outside my building and within: Stop yelling and start listening. Liberals, listen to this liberal lawyer who notes that the RFRA has compassionate roots, roots that won for a Muslim the right to grow his beard in prison. Conservatives, listen to your own conservative mayor in Indy who is against the RFRA because he says it presents to the country an image that not everyone is welcome in Indiana, and by extension Indianapolis.

Is that what we want? To have a significant portion of America — pick a percentage, but pick one in double figures – recoiling at our state?

Public opinion isn't everything, but don't tell me it's nothing. Not with something as enormous as this. The roots of the RFRA can be compassionate, but the perversion of this law by some — and some would pervert it, use it to discriminate — would be poisonous. Because of that perversion, the potential backlash is frightening. Businesses not moving to Indiana. The Super Bowl not coming back. The NBA All-Star Game, which was last here in 1985, not returning. The NCAA making the 2015 Final Four the last one at Lucas Oil Stadium, a necessary position — based on NCAA precedent — if an ironic one for the NCAA to take, given its location three-quarters of a mile from the stadium.

So does the NCAA leave Indiana? What about other businesses — will some of them leave or eliminate plans to expand here?

Is this a question we want to even consider?

The Final Four comes to town next week. Will it be back in 2021, as currently scheduled? The NCAA already has said it has some serious thinking to do. So do you. Me. My newsroom, our city, our state.

Stop screaming.This bill isn't your chance to show the world the strength of your vocal cords. If everyone's shouting, nobody's listening.

And that's how we get lost.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.