Arizona Senate Passes Bill Protecting Righteous Bigots

Arizona Daily Star:

State senators voted Wednesday to let businesses refuse to serve gays based on owners' "sincerely held" religious beliefs.
The 17-13 vote along party lines, with Republicans in the majority, came after supporters defeated an attempt to extend existing employment laws that bar discrimination based on religion and race to also include sexual orientation. Sen. Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, said that's a separate issue from what he is trying to do.
But Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said that's precisely the issue.
"The bill opens the door for discrimination against gays and lesbians," he said.
Yarbrough, however, said foes of SB 1062 are twisting what his legislation says.
"This bill is not about discrimination," he said. "It's about preventing discrimination against people who are clearly living out their faith."
A similar measure is awaiting a vote in the House, probably later today.
Arizona already has laws which protect individuals and businesses from any state action which substantially interferes with their right to exercise their religion. This bill extends that protection to cover what essentially are private transactions.

I'm not intimately familiar with the Bible, but I do remember some stories about folks with sincerely held religious beliefs being attacked for those beliefs and how they put them into action.  They were scribes and Pharisees who tried to follow the precepts of their religion, and some rabble-rouser kept criticizing them.  The scribes and Pharisees attempted to keep away from known adulterers and tax collecting swindlers, and avoid doing business with them, but that guy would go to those bad guys' homes and eat dinner with them, and  come to their defense when the religious folks tried to show those folks how they sinned against the laws of the scribes and Pharisees' religion.  He'd even imply that the scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites who weren't any better than the obvious sinners.  I don't remember who that trouble maker was, but I think he ended up being found guilty of some crime, so he's probably not very credible anyway.  I'm sure the folks trying to protect people who are clearly living out their faith are more familiar with those stories than I am, so I should probably quiet down and defer to them.