In light of the debacle that took place in Arizona last week, the question has been asked whether or not states already have religious freedom protections. The answer? Yes! At least 31 states have religious freedom protections that were either enacted by legislation or by state court decisions. The map below shows the breakdown of which states have what kind of protections.

Unfortunately, West Virginia has no such protections. I am currently unclear on what protections, if any, West Virginia has in place. According to this map our state doesn’t have any protections other than what is provided in the Constitution of the United States. It’s alarming to me how behind West Virginia is on critical issues like abortion limits, abortion funding, marriage protection laws, religious freedom laws, and more. It’s as if our state has been in the hands of liberal leadership for the past century. Oh wait…

A recent article said of these state laws:

“These state RFRAs were enacted in response to Supreme Court decisions that had nothing to do with gay rights or same-sex marriage. And the state court decisions interpreting their state constitutions arose in all sorts of contexts, mostly far removed from  gay rights or same-sex marriage. There were cases about Amish buggies, hunting moose for native Alaskan funeral rituals, an attempt to take a church  building by eminent domain, landmark laws that prohibited churches from modifying their buildings – all sorts of diverse conflicts between religious practice and pervasive regulation.”

I’m thankful that most states have extra laws protecting the rights of people to freely exercise their faith. Perhaps one day soon West Virginia will catch up.