Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Republican presidential candidate Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said religious liberty laws that allow refusal of services based on sexual orientation like the ones vetoed in Georgia and passed in North Carolina and Mississippi are unnecessary.
Kasich said, “We are not having this issue in our state about this whole religious liberty. I believe that religious institutions ought to be protected and be able to be in a position of where they can live out their deeply held religious purposes. But when you get beyond that it gets to be a tricky issue. And tricky is not the right word but it can become a contentious issues. but in our state we’re not facing this. Everybody needs to take a deep breath, respect one another and with the minute we start trying to write laws, things become more polarized, more complicated, obviously I don’t want to force people to violate their deeply held religious convictions, we have to see what that is all about. I wouldn’t have signed that law from everything I know I haven’t studied it. But Nathan Deal, the governor of Georgia, vetoed another one. You just got to see what the laws are and pro the proposals. Why do we have to write a law every time we turn around in this country. Can’t we figure out just how to get along a little bit better and respect one another? That’s where I think we ought to be. Everybody, chill out, get over it if you have a disagreement with somebody. That’s where I am right now, John. Unless something that pops up I’m in the inclined to sign anything.”
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