giving with one hand and taking with the other. I like Barney, but he's wrong on this one and failing to see that religion is increasingly being used as a cudgel by Conservatives without even a whiff of honest religious objection.

It's like the Eden Organic CEO - that guy isn't religious. He is a die-hard Libertarian who is willing to USE religion because he doesn't like the government telling him what to do.

Dressing up homophobia - or anti-goverment regulation libertarianism - in religion isn't about religious belief. It's crass exploitation of the exemptions.

Barney is wrong on this one.

After the fights with the ACA, LGBT activists are seeing what can happen when the courts water down laws with religious exemptions. That 1993 religious freedoms law needs to be amended ASAP to state that businesses DO NOT have a religious belief

So instead of saying "I'm going to fire him because he's gay." the company can say "I'm going to fire him because he's gay, and Jesus hates gays.". Is that supposed to be progress?

First, what does that mean?

Second, ENDA was pushed for DECADES. Pulling support in light of the dramatic public shift on gay rights and the Hobby Lobby decision is not unreasonable, and it's certainly not a quick change. Mr. Frank is apparently fighting for gay rights as if it was 2004.

I don't want to see the bill passed and then shot down by a Supreme Court with too many conservatives on it.

Briefly put, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is "legislation proposed in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with at least 15 employees."

Presently, unless you live in a jurisdiction that has specifically passed legislation barring employment discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation (and even there you can find religious exemptions), LGBTs most certainly can be denied employment or fired from their jobs for being gay. This is what ENDA was supposed to address but a religious exemption was tacked on, effectively gutting it. This is a prime example of why the Hobby Lobby case had such far-reaching ramifications and following that SC decision, many gay rights groups abandoned ENDA precisely because of those religious exemptions.

There were/are scores of lawsuits filed against the contraception mandate and ENDA under the guise of "religious liberty". The only liberty they're really interested in is the freedom to discriminate.