Over the weekend the religious freedom laws in arkansas and indiana, and whether businesses should be more socially active. Some of the reaction to those laws in those states, whether businesses should be more engaged in political debates over social issues. Here is how to join our conversation. For those of you in eastern and central time zones, the number is 2027 488000. Mountain and pacific 202748 8001. For social media, send us a tweet cspanwj. Make sure you mute your television or radio when you call in. Over the weekend, the president gave an interview to Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. The front page this morning peter bakers article obama calls the iran deal our best that. Host a quote from the president , this is the best that so far that we have to get an agreement from iran. What we will be doing even as we enter into this deal is sending a clear message to the uranian and to the entire region that if anybody messes with israel america will be there. This is the headline of the financial times. Pope francis in prayer for kenya victims. He was in a rainy vatican city yesterday. He called for an end to the persecution of christians and to all those who suffer injustice as a result of ongoing conflict and violence. He cited the killing of almost 150 people in kenya last week why islamist militants and called for a piece and called for peace in yemen, sudan, and nigeria. He referred to the out like nuclear deal between iran and the International Community praying it would be a definitive step to a more secure and fraternal world. Our subject for the first couple of 45 minutes or so is about reaction to the religious freedom laws passed last week in indiana and also in arkansas. This is the business section of the wall street journal. Walmart emerges as unlikely social force. This is from the New York Times. Many credited walmarts influence as a major factor in the decision on wednesday by governor to ask state law lakers lawmakers to amend the legislation or take other action to avoid the potential for discrimination. For many, walmarts pointed intervention into what amounts to a civil rights issue highlights a cultural transformation underway inside the companys bentonville, arkansas, headquarters. Some of the reporting of the New York Times. Should businesses be more involved in social issues, such as we saw with the religious freedom law. Michael from kensington pennsylvania. From new kensington. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call and thank you for cspan. I disagree with the portrayal of this law as the ability of Business Owners to discriminate against gays rid i think gays and other groups and all Americans Still have certain protections under the constitution. They are not being prohibited from being served in the public marketplace. What the law does, it prohibits the government from coming in and telling someone that they cannot that they have to perform a certain activity, they have to engage in a certain activity that violates their religious believes. A writer from boston, who is active on legal issues and things like that says you would not force a jewish baker to make bread for a catholic mass. The government would not force that individual to do that. Nor should you be able to force a fundamentalist to engage and cater a gay wedding or to take photograph for a gay wedding. Host what do you suppose prompted the state of indiana to move forward with that legislation . Caller well, over the years it has been something that has been coming because ever since 1990, when bill clinton signed into law the signed into law an act it has been deemed to be unconstitutional. You could not make a federal law that would involve all the states, so they thought it would not hold up your it many states have made similar laws in the past without such outcry. The only difference is today the huge cry is coming from the leftists, and i believe, from many organized leftist organizations that have huge social media that have used social media to gravitate on two issues that portray christians as traditionalists or republicans or anybody who has a conservative viewpoint as racist homophobes, etc. , and they have shut down businesses. Host michael mentioned social media. Walmart did tweak out its policy did tweet out its policy, its antidiscrimination policy. James in grand forks, north dakota, go ahead. Grand forks . We just lost james. Lets go to robert in davenport iowa. What do you think . Caller i think they passed the law in indiana so that they could discriminate. They did not want to wait on next thing they will be saying they did not want to wait on black people. Before world war ii, they would allow nazis to eat, but they did not want to allow black people the same thing. As the bible says, they say they are christians, cast the first stone. With that in mind, it is just a way for them to try to start discriminating against people. Why would they care what that person is doing . That is none of their business. What they are supposed to be doing as christians is winning those souls to christ, and then christ brings those people to him, and then he straightens them out and start repairing them. That is not their job. That is how i feel about it. Host more of your calls coming up on the issue of whether businesses should be involved in social issues. Joining us is andrew is Angela Greiling keane. Lets look longterm first on the issue of Nuclear Negotiations with iran. What is ahead for the president and the administration in selling this to congress . Guest the president has a big task in front of him. He is happy the negotiators reached an agreement last week, which they announced thursday. The president s job is not done. He has to put on the charm offensive. He and his administration were doing that over the weekend, trying to send a message to a Skeptical Congress to try to convince lawmakers to support the deal while the president has said he would lead out the menendez bill. He still needs some support from congress in order to see the deal be a success. Host the timeframe is important. That bill will come up for consideration by the Senate ForeignRelations Committee soon after the Senate Returns next week. Guest that is right. Senator corker, the main sponsor of the bill, says he wants to bring it up for a vote april 14. So the senate when they come back, it is like to be an early order of business starting at the committee level. What we are seeing so far, what we heard on the sunday shows yesterday, is predictable support, opposition for the bill on long party lines, and given that republicans have control of the senate, the president knows he needs all the support he can get in the senate against that bill. In an interview published yesterday with tom friedman of the New York Times, the president left open the door to a compromise with senator corker , even though it is not on this legislation. He had kind words for senator corker, saying he is a reasons person, and signaled that there may be some middle ground. Host later in the week the president heads to the meeting of the summit of the americas. Where will that be . Why is this an important meeting . Guest the president flies out wednesday night, first stop in jamaica. Thursday night he heads to panama city for the summit of the americas. It is a big deal because it is the time of year that all of the leaders of the americas get together, and it is especially a big deal this year because it is the first time that a cuban government delegation is represented there, and the first time that president obama and growled castro will have a chance and rolfaul castro will be meeting in the same place after the president announced the new relationship with cuba. There has been no announcement yet of a formal lateral meeting but everyone expect interaction and everything that happens, be it a handshake, i contact, or an actual meeting, will be analyzed for what that means for the future for u. S. Hubert relations. Host one other issue that is coming up, the miami herald focuses their headline, that venezuela has its own agenda for the big summit. They have toughened relations with venezuela, correct . Guest relations with venezuela have been sharply deteriorating in recent months. It is a concern of president obama. In the past couple of months, he had sharp words about his concern for the venezuelan democracy and the rollback in venezuela. Likewise, even sharper words for the u. S. And specifically for president obama. They view the u. S. As meddling in Venezuelan Affairs and they see the u. S. As the root of some of the problems in venezuela where there is serious inflation and people are not able to get necessarily the food and supplies they need to live there. That will be another issue that is overshadowing summit. Host very near term, todays agenda for the president includes the easter egg roll, the 137th annual. Why has this become an annual event . Guest the foreign before the president dies into policy before the president dives into policy issues, they will be at the annual white house is direct role. Children from washington and across the country converge on the south lawn. Decorations have been going up or days. The president was unable to take his helicopter to and from the south lawn last week the easter egg roll decorations. It is a big deal and it is something that the president and the first lady show up at each year. They will probably talk to some kids, let the dogs out and let the kids pet them. It is a good way to start the week. Host Angela Greiling keane Bloomberg NewsWhite House Correspondent you can find her on twitter. Thanks for the up eight. Thanks for the update. Guest thank you. Host here is how to join the conversation. Host walmart is at the center of a lot of the discussion on businesses, and the reaction to the religious freedom act in arkansas. The headline from the business day section of the New York Times, walmart, long silent on public policy, emerges as an unlikely social force. Walmart started to tiptoe into areas like environmental stability. In critics and critics noted in ways that would affect its bottom line. Walmart surprised civil rights advocates by becoming the first Prominent Company to back the renewal of the Voting Rights act in 2006, a decision informed by the retailers standing as the nations largest privatesector employer of africanamerican workers. In indiana, the final four, wisconsin in duke tonight. The head of the ncaa, mark emmert said the issue is near and dear to us because we have 500 employers in this state. We run the enterprise from here. We have to attract a diverse workforce, he said. I do not know the statutes in texas or other places, but i think that those are things that, as we go forward, as we make the decisions about places we should take our tournaments we are going to have to look deeper and harder at. Mystic beach, new york, are you there . You are on the air. Caller how are you . This stuff here in indiana, and what is taking place in arkansas about businesses be more socially active or whatever, this all starts back with this sexual acception thing. These people got it all wrong. Until we define and identify who god is, ok there should be nothing said about anything in our state laws or federal laws. We are Walking Around with the same god in our pockets. And what should be done is, if my dollar bill matches somebody elses dollar bill for trade and commerce, that is as far as you should go. In god we trust, or get rid of that slogan. Host the front page of washington journal. This is about rand pauls and coming up this week, challenging his own course, and some of the writing from the wall street journal. In baggy cargo shorts and tshirt, rand paul took the podium in nashville to boost his fathers 2008 president ial campaign and repeated one of ron pauls signature applause lines a warning about the risks of u. S. Military in thin of u. S. Military intervention abroad. Today, mr. Paul addresses audiences in a sport coat and is striking a more mainstream tone as he prepares his own run for the white house. Mr. Paul now a republican senator from kentucky, is trying to present a profile distinct from his fathers. He will make the announcement for the presidency tomorrow at noon eastern. We will cover that live on cspan. Back to your calls. To panama city, florida. Heaven, what do you think kevin, what do you think about businesses reaction to the religious freedom law . Caller businesses need to be socially active. The best way is by paying their fair share of taxes, and, you know, just trying to help the American People. Because if they take every tax loophole in the world and send their profits overseas, and leave them overseas, to me that is not patriotic. But, you know, once again, i think they can be socially active by paying their taxes. Host minneapolis, minnesota. What are your thoughts on that . Caller hi. Well it depends on what you mean by socially active. But if we look at it closely, we can see that businesses are already socially active. We can look at what starbucks did not too long ago with the race matters thing that they will be doing for the whole year. The cores the coors owners are socially active. Some people do not agree with their politics, but they are socially active. In communities, local communities, you may have local businesses support events or projects that people are working on. Like i said, depending on what you mean by socially active, it already exists. Do you know what im saying . Host tony perkins, the head of the Family Research council, was on cspan newsmakers. He reacted to some of the news out of indiana in terms of business reaction to the religious freedom law. Tony perkins the hypocrisy is amazing to me, how you have all these businesses say we will not do business in indiana, where they are doing business in china and the middle east, where they do not only discrimination, but they execute homosexuals. A lot of the media did not call them out for that the fact that a lot of the media did not call them out for that is quite striking. Host he said the hypocrisy about some of the Business Leaders reaction to the religious freedom law in indiana. Here is a here is what Carly Fiorina had to say. Opposition to the religious freedom law is hypocritical. Once a fortune 50 chief executive herself, she is disgusted with how ceos rush to condemn the religious freedom law. Mrs. Free arena mrs. Free arena the result of corporations vowing to narrow special interests rather than on public anger. Ceos like tim cook, who publicly objected to the indiana law, having aged in a level of hypocrisy that is unfortunate. She says also, when tim cook is upset about all the places that he does businesses because of the way they treat gays and women, he needs to withdraw from 90 of the markets he is in, including china and saudi arabia , she said thursday afternoon during an interview with wall street journal reporters and editors. But i do not hear him being upset about that. James in sutton, massachusetts your thoughts on the activity of diseases in terms of on the activity of businesses in terms of their response to the religious freedom issues. Caller yes, i have been concerned about this for quite a while. I feel when a person is selling a product that you are selling a product to anybody. However, when it involves a contract where you have to personally be involved, i think in a case like that, the person has the right to refuse on any ground whatsoever. Host in terms of the reaction like major companies, we talked about apple here and walmart in indiana. Do you think some of their reaction has been over the top or what . Caller i think they do not have a policy, like i just expressed. Selling a product or a service where you have a contract. Anybody that is selling a product, i think if they are saying anything outside of that, i think they are not thinking it through. It is almost like the thoughtlessness of this thing. I know it is not the topic, of iran nobody has quoted Mohammed Albert and i mohammed elbaradais book. Things are not being thought through very clearly. Host we will talk more about that in our next segment. Eight tweet from congress a tweet from congresswoman loretta sanchez. After mcdonalds agreed to raise the minimum wage in many of their stores. She said, it is great to see Companies Like mcdonalds working toward improving Employee Benefits and wages. Next up is judy from miami florida. Caller good morning. I do not mind businesses being socially active, except when it comes to religion. When it comes to religion, for businesses to get behind some Christian Police state activity, it is a form of fascism. Historically businesses, kings president s not president s, but leaders of companies, and always works together to use religion as a police state. We do not need it in this country. If the republicans think they have any chance of winning in the future in 2016, they had better get off the religion check. They had better get off antigay and antiwomens rights over control over their own bodies, or they will not win. I am thrilled to death to see all of these Companies Come out and just smack the religious back into their churches where they belong. Host some of judys comments reflected in a tweet from gary who says, republicans win next president ial election if they stay away from social issues focus on the economy, illegals and limited government. Also, it means should apple tell us how to live even though interamerican offshore money and do like the amish. Separate and do not up a do not participate in the political system. It is over. Our headline here, courtesy of the museum in washington filling coffers for race begins. The charade begins this month for president ial contenders the charade comes to an end this month. Marco rubio writes the timing like most things in politics, is driven by money. April marks the start of a sprint to raise as much as possible for an official candidacy before the summer reporting deadline, which lands as televised primary