Contact: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, April 17, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- Bill Donohue replies to IBM's assault on religious liberty:

Corporate behemoth IBM wants to join the culture war. Welcome, though it may regret doing so.

No one knew how anti-Christian IBM had become until it unleashed its fury against a religious-liberty bill in Louisiana. Its governor, Bobby Jindal, is a practicing Catholic, and he plans to sign a law that protects religious liberty from its enemies. Those enemies now include IBM.

IBM is charging that the religious-liberty bill will create a "hostile environment for our current and prospective employees," saying the legislation is "antithetical to our company's values." It offers not a shred of evidence to substantiate this absurd accusation, and that's because there is none. Proof: The Louisiana law is based on a similar federal law, as well as other state laws on this issue, and if religious-liberty legislation triggered a "hostile environment," then IBM would be able to document it by now. It can't. As for its "company values," evidently not among them is respect for the First Amendment guarantee of religious liberty.

If IBM wants to relocate from Louisiana, it should consider Cuba. But it needs to move fast: Cuba is showing signs of renewed respect for religious liberty, and if conditions improve, the capitalist elites may find themselves sitting to the left of the communists.