Any business who is turning anyone away from services based on religious belief is not Christian. I’ve said it before: if you disagree with another person’s beliefs or actions, your only option is to pray for that person. It’s right out of Jesus’ mouth, folks: “Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.”
Now, if you’re praying for someone, really praying, 99% of the time God is going to change you. So just prepare yourself for that.
The real kicker is, as a Christian, what I just wrote applies to me as well. All these idiots who claim to need a law to defend their bigotry? Damn it! All I can do as a Christian is pray for them. And I have to be open to how God will change me when I do.
But let me set aside the Christian aspect of what’s happening Tennessee, Georgia, Kansas, and Arizona. I absolutely disagree that these movements are in any way Christian based, but there may really be those who believe it. Is it okay for businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation? I’m really asking the question. Race is protected. Religion is protected. Age is protected. Gender is protected. Religion is protected. Disability is protected. But there is no federal law that protects LGBT individuals. Am I right about that?
Businesses can discriminate based on the clothes you wear (or don’t wear). Why is that? If my religion requires me to keep my face covered, but your business requires that your face be identifiable, who’s right wins?
I believe religious freedom, even religion that I disagree with, should be protected. Why is it my right to make the local bakery cater my same-sex wedding?
icanhasgrace 
“I believe religious freedom, even religion that I disagree with, should be protected. Why is it my right to make the local bakery cater my same-sex wedding?”
Your right to practice your religion ends where my rights to life, liberty, & pursuit of happiness begin. Take it to the extreme: what if your religion tells you that you should sacrifice a virgin on the solstice. Doesn’t that virgin’s right to live take precedence? A less extreme (but more relevant) example: your religion tells you that homosexuality is wrong…OK, so don’t be homosexual, but you don’t have the right to tell me I can’t be. Your religion requires you to wear a burqa, but not to make me wear one. Your religion bars you from eating pork…why would that affect my menu for the week?
As for that bakery, the baker opened a business to the public. He advertises to the public. He may have a business license from the local or state government. He uses public resources & infrastructure (that my tax dollars helped pay for) to conduct his business. For those reasons, he can not discriminate against me because of my religion or my race or my ethnicity. Unfortunately, sexual orientation is not a protected class federally, nor in Tennessee, so he CAN turn me away because I’m gay.
Many follow this line of questioning with this one: Why would I wanna give that baker my gay money to begin with? Well, I don’t…and in Nashville, I don’t have to. Why give a bigot baker my cash when there’s another up the block that’d be happy to have my business? The problem comes in when you get outside the metro areas…what happens when the only baker in Oneida doesn’t want to bake my cake? Should I have to drive 60 miles to Knoxville to find a baker?
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Thanks RR. This article on huffington post gave me a greatly needed boost of perspective http://huff.to/Rl7q8M
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Reblogged this on Standing for Equality.
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