Rep. Jason Lewis (R-MN) is under fire once again for comments he made as a radio talk show host, this time during which he lamented that Indiana’s religious freedom law “doesn’t go far in enough in allowing discrimination,” against LGBT people. CNN first reported on Rep. Lewis’ remarks, and last week first reported that Lewis had been upset he was no longer able to call women “sluts.”
In a 2015 blog post he railed against Indiana’s religious freedom law.
“There’s only one thing wrong with Indiana’s (or anyone else’s) Religious Freedom & Restoration Act (RFRA): it doesn’t go far in enough in allowing discrimination,” Lewis wrote in 2015, as CNN reports.
“That is, why should you have to invoke a religious exemption in order to freely determine with whom you want to associate? I might not want to hire you because your ‘lifestyle’ (gay or straight) violates the tenants of my company’s religious beliefs (the Supreme Court upheld Hobby Lobby’s decision not to offer contraceptives for the same reason), but I also might not want to employ you because your ears are large. The former is protected by RFRA, the latter is not. Why?”
Lewis, now a U.S. Congressman representing Minnesota, also attacked the Americans with Disabilities Act, actually suggesting it is responsible for an increase in workplace shootings. (That is false.)
“Because of the ADA, we have eviscerated the notion of fair play and in the process in these workplace shootings, I have the temerity today, the audacity, to suggest that that is partly responsible for these workplace shootings. In every single instance, the person had a history of mental, mental illness, something set them off and they go bonkers and kill people. So why did we not screen those people out?”
Lewis “has repeatedly demeaned recipients of welfare and government assistance, calling them ‘parasites’ and ‘scoundrels,’ and said the black community had ‘traded one plantation for another,'” CNN adds.
He also called “part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that applied to private businesses ‘unconstitutional’ as well as calling the Americans with Disabilities Act ‘one of the worst’ laws.”
House Speaker Ryan says he will not call on Lewis to apologize.