Symbolic religious bills are deliberate steps toward discrimination laws
Evidence
The architects of the Blitz have helpfully grouped their model legislation into three categories or phases. The first consists of symbolic or ceremonial gestures that will receive “some opposition but not hard to beat,” according to David Barton. Some, like the Minnesota bill, focus on placing mottos in schools. Others aim to place “In God We Trust” placards and stickers in statehouses, federal buildings, libraries, post offices—even police cars. … But the point of phase I is just to clear the path for phase II, which consists of bills that propose to inject Christian nationalist ideas more directly into schools and other government entities. … The point of phase II, of course, is to make room for phase III, which legalizes discrimination against those whose actions (or very being) offends the sensibilities of conservative Christians. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 626
Categorization
- XREF: The three-phase funnel now formally confirms the ‘slippery slope’ critics long claimed — see excerpt 625 which states critics were right. — connects to: Laws stripping religious freedom provoke principled civil disobedience — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 824; Religious liberty bills favor one precise creed over all others — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 646; When believers cannot be visually identified, lawmakers criminalize the religion wholesale.
- DEEPTHINKING: A precise, self-documented staged escalation model: each phase normalizes the next, making the whole project a study of how consent is manufactured incrementally.
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
Broader Connections
- Religious liberty bills favor one precise creed over all others
#expands(0.75) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 646 - Laws stripping religious freedom provoke principled civil disobedience
#expands(0.72) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 824