Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is taking a cue from Texas and has announced that court clerks and other public employees who don't want to issue gay marriage licenses won't have to, just as long as an invisible friend in the sky told them they mustn't. It's quite the popular view today, although as RightWingWatch points out, Jindal wasn't nearly so accommodating of freedom of conscience in 2009, when a Louisiana justice of the peace refused to grant a marriage license to an interracial couple. In fact, Jindal was downright hostile to the poor judge's sincerely held beliefs. Oh, but that was a long time ago, and totally different, because that judge never invoked Jebus (as far as we can tell) so just shut up. Totally different.

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In 2009, the JP for Tangipahoa Parish, Keith Bardwell, explained that his vast experience as a judge helped him to see that mixed-race marriages just don't last, and so, out of concern for the children, he refused to issue any marriage licenses to race-mixers. But that was not because he was a racist, heavens no!

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press... "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

The man was living out his beliefs in what was best for the children, is all, and estimated that he'd blocked at least four interracial marriages before a couple of troublemakers filed a discrimination complaint.

RightWingWatch notes that, at the time, Gov. Jindal wasn't at all supportive of Bardwell's willingness to buck a Supreme Court decision that he personally found morally repugnant. In fact, he wanted Bardwell to lose his job, just for being politically incorrect, even though Bardwell happily referred interracial couples to other JPs who didn't care about mongrelizing the races.

"This is a clear violation of constitutional rights and federal and state law. ... Disciplinary action should be taken immediately -- including the revoking of his license," the Republican governor said.

Once Bardwell finally resigned, Jindal said it was "the right decision" and added that Bardwell's actions were "clearly wrong and this resignation was long overdue.” Sometime between then and now, Bobby Jindal has discovered that people in government apparently should have the right to refuse to do their jobs, as long as they have a good reason. Bardwell's biggest mistake seems to have been that he didn't invoke the Holy Bible -- maybe that stuff about the children of Ham or the mark of Cain. If he had, Bobby Jindal, crusader for freedom of conscience, would almost certainly have supported his brave stand for what he believed. Either way, David Vitter still would have just run away from reporters trying to get his opinion on Bardwell.

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If Jindal ever gets enough support to be included in a Republican debate (HA!), somebody should probably ask him about that.

[RightWingWatch / HoumaToday / Nola.com]