This is the second time in two weeks I’ve written about an Indiana governor. When I moved here five years ago, I thought Indiana was just “fly-over” country. Who knew there could be this kind of intrigue in a state known for little more than high-school basketball and pig farming?

The other day, current Indiana governor Mike Pence signed a bill known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. What this bill does is prohibit the government from forcing business owners into practices which would violate their religious principles. Opponents of this law immediately took to the rooftops screaming a bunch of politically-correct bilge about how this law “could be used to discriminate against gay people.”

I generally avoid discussing politics, but there are times when sports and politics intertwine, and thanks to NCAA President Mark Emmert and Yahoo Sports., this is one of those times.

Before I get into this, let’s set up who I am in terms of this story, which is all going to come down to your demographics. I’m a middle-aged, educated black guy. I was raised Catholic, but left the church once I was old enough to realize that organized religion exists in this country largely as an instrument of social control, and my political leanings could be best described as “anti-bullshit.”

Believe me, the bullshit drips out of this story.

First of all, let’s talk about the government’s role in deciding social issues. It honestly should be at absolute zero; this country has far larger problems to worry than this kind of crap. The time spent turning this into law could have easily been spent finding ways to create jobs, dealing with crime, or fixing our crumbling infrastructure. There a precise term for what happens when a government starts getting worried about religion; it’s called “Iran.”

But what is an even bigger bit of bullshit is the bluster coming from the opponents of this law, who are breaking out all their shop-worn rhetoric of “intolerance” to make you believe that Indiana is going to start burning gay people at the stake the day after tomorrow. This is coming from the entirely-manufactured idea that this law allows business owners to refuse service based on their religious beliefs.

When questioned about this law, Governor Pence defended his stance.

“This bill is not about discrimination; and if I thought it legalized discrimination in any way, I would have vetoed it,” said Pence.

Since I didn’t really understand what this law was really about, I looked it up and read it. When you boil all the legalese off of it, it breaks down to four simple bullet points:

Prohibits a governmental entity from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the governmental entity can demonstrate that the burden: (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering the compelling governmental interest.

Provides a procedure for remedying a violation of the law.

Specifies that the religious freedom law applies to the implementation or application of a law regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity or official is a party to a proceeding implementing or applying the law.

Prohibits an applicant, employee, or former employee from pursuing certain causes of action against a private employer.

Translated, what this really means is that the government can’t stop somebody from running their own business in accordance with their religious beliefs, unless doing so violates previously existing law, backs that up with establishing a process for handling violations, and offers protection to business owners against lawsuits filed because of practices in place due to religious beliefs. That’s not just “blanket protection,” either. This law would require business owners to “show cause” if a complaint arises in a process where they can still easily lose. In other words, business owners just got back a slice of “due process” they lost in the “Politically Correct” wars of 20 years ago.

A guy who knows a hell of a lot more about law agrees with me. Daniel O. Conkle is an Indiana University law professor who supports gay rights and same-sex marriage. Having said that, he also agrees with the governor and supports the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He said the objections to the law are exaggerated. Instead, he said it provides a general legal standard.

“It’s the same legal standard that is already a matter of federal law under the federal comparable statute RFRA, Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It also is already the law in roughly 30 states, and it has not led to discrimination laws being overtaken by religious objections,” said Conkle.

In other words, by establishing a legal standard, we now have a law which is not only fair to employers and everybody else, but set in place a procedure to deal with people who violate the law.

But if you allow yourself to be informed by the likes of Mark Emmert and Yahoo Sports, you don’t even get past the first sentence and all the old hate banners are flying. You don’t have to wait long for the self-moralizing to happen.