If you think your religion says you can and should discriminate against your fellow law-abiding Americans and South Dakotans, then you and your religion stinks.

Indiana is learning this lesson the hard way with their passage of and now backpedaling on a so-called “religious freedom” bill that would make it legal to discriminate against LGBTQ citizens - or frankly - anyone else your “religion” says are heathens.

And don’t laugh, South Dakota. A very similar bill was introduced by a number of the our non-thinking legislators this past session - House Bill 1220. Fortunately, common sense prevailed and the legislature killed it. I’ll list these geniuses’ sponsors' names at the end of the post so you can deny them service when they come to your business.

But I digress.

In no religion am I aware is it a central belief to violate the rights of other law abiding citizens. I’ve gone through Missouri Synod Lutheran catechism, United Methodist confirmation, Mennonite Brethren confirmation, studied Buddhism in a seminary, traveled to and met with many Jews in Israel and have had a number of Jewish friends, and traveled to and lived in Muslim countries - I lived in Iraq for a year and a half - and I’ve never, ever encountered or heard about such stupidity.

On the contrary, even as an "infidel" in Muslim countries I was treated like a family member.

So, you don’t like gay people? Get over it. Not too long ago, cafe owners said the same thing about blacks at their lunch counters and wouldn’t serve them because it was their “belief.”

That isn’t the case now. Those bigots are now considered almost quaint in their hatred of others.

Let’s take this law to its illogical conclusion. If it is my religion to not serve anyone who doesn’t believe or act quite the way I think they should, then none of us will be able to even buy an ice cream cone at the Dairy Queen.

That’s bad for business and bad for a pluralistic society.

But the Indiana legislators and our own South Dakota legislators who sponsored HB 1220 don’t want us to live in a pluralistic society. They want us to live in a theocracy of their making.

But I submit to you these South Dakota legislators who sponsored our own Nuremberg Law (Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about) deserve your derision and more importantly, don’t deserve your vote in 2016.

Representatives Craig, Beal, Bolin, Brunner, Campbell, Deutsch, DiSanto, Greenfield (Lana), Haggar (Don), Harrison, Heinemann (Leslie), Hunt, Kaiser, Marty, Novstrup (Al), Partridge, Ring, Schaefer, Solum, Verchio, Wiik, Willadsen, Wollmann, and Zikmund and Senators Greenfield (Brock), Bradford, Haggar (Jenna), Haverly, Jensen (Phil), Novstrup (David), Olson, Otten (Ernie), Rampelberg, and Rave.

Remember these names. They will be footnotes--and embarrassments--in the history of South Dakota, a history of expanding human and civil rights, not restricting them.

Real American and South Dakota patriots uphold the law, respect diversity and others - and don't discriminate.

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