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The baker isn't being asked to condone homosexuality, so the baker isn't being asked to do something immoral. He doesn't have to give up his moral beliefs. He has to give up his immoral beliefs. Which are that he has a right to discriminate against customers.
But by making a cake for a gay wedding, they are indirectly participating in a ceremony that violates their religious beliefs. They're being forced by law to comply with what is within their beliefs, a sin. Both sides have a claim to discrimination; this is a really difficult scenario because one side is always going to be discriminated against and who is "right" ultimately depends on your POV.
But by making a cake for a gay wedding, they are indirectly participating in a ceremony that violates their religious beliefs. They're being forced by law to comply with what is within their beliefs, a sin. Both sides have a claim to discrimination; this is a really difficult scenario because one side is always going to be discriminated against and who is "right" ultimately depends on your POV.
INDIRECTLY.
They aren't participating at all in the ceremony. They aren't complying with any sins.
Helpful hint, people who are gay shop alongside us in department stores, eat alongside us in restaurants, sit alongside us in church. And we know this is true. We don't stop shopping because of it. We don't stop going to restaurants. We don't stop buying tickets to movies, theaters, concerts, operas. We don't stop going to school or to church or to the library. Most times, we don't know who is gay and who is not. And the stores and restaurants and theaters and libraries don't know who is gay and who is not. So when a shopkeeper does find out someone is gay, suddenly they can refuse to sell to them? Because another person's sex life offends the shopkeeper?
DISCRIMINATION is immoral. The baker doesn't have a claim to discrimination. The baker is asserting that he has a right to discriminate. It's not morality that the baker is embracing, it's immorality.
The baker's business is selling baked goods. As I stated earlier, if he's asked to create something that he considers immoral, for instance a penis cake, or a cake depicting someone naked, something that he finds offensive, I believe he has the right to refuse to do that. If he's asked to create a three-tier traditional wedding cake, something he's made hundreds of times, he has no moral reason to refuse to create such a cake, or to sell such a cake to anyone who orders it. If he knew about every customer's sex life, or even their personal lives, and he refused to sell baked goods to people who did immoral things, he wouldn't have any customers at all. None of us are saints. And shopkeepers aren't the morality police.
Whose religious morals are we going to use? In my own faith, Rabbis have been studying, analyzing, pondering, and, most importantly, DEBATING, the minutae of our religious books for ages. The meaning of ALL religious texts are constantly shifting. Look at how many denominations of Christianity and Islam there are - each with different take on what the SAME
BOOKS are telling us about how we should live.
But that said, ALL Christians are immoral because every single one breaks the first commandment by believing in a false messiah. You don't hear Jews whining about not being able to use money just because we find "In God We Trust" offensive - we deal with it and when appropriate, rally to have it removed. It should be written as G-d, because money is a physical thing and the name can be erased. There is still debate over whether we can write the full name out online (I typically do not) because nothing on the web ever really is erased.
Every single person is immoral under some religious or philosophical faith. Why get your panties in a wad over Christian vs atheist vs Hindu vs whatever?
But by making a cake for a gay wedding, they are indirectly participating in a ceremony that violates their religious beliefs. They're being forced by law to comply with what is within their beliefs, a sin. Both sides have a claim to discrimination; this is a really difficult scenario because one side is always going to be discriminated against and who is "right" ultimately depends on your POV.
They seem to have no problem with making cakes for liars, cheats, adulterers, fornicators, the tattooed, tax evaders, heretics, wife-beaters and the like.
As soon as it's a gay couple, their "morals" kick in.
Your example is an example of a religious majority thinking they have the right to discriminate.
I am actually sympathetic to business owners being able to control their creative product, but not to business owners who refuse to do business with certain groups because of prejudice. For instance, if I were a baker, I could refuse to make or decorate cakes in ways that offend me, but I could not refuse to sell to certain customers.
And why? Because I would not want someone to refuse to sell me gas, or a coke, or a dress, or a cake, based on an inherent characteristic. If a gas station owner refused to sell me gas because I was a woman (and don't ridicule the example, think Saudi Arabia), that would be discrimination. And if a baker refused to sell a cake to a gay couple, that is discrimination.
The baker isn't being asked to condone homosexuality, so the baker isn't being asked to do something immoral. He doesn't have to give up his moral beliefs. He has to give up his immoral beliefs. Which are that he has a right to discriminate against customers.
INDIRECTLY.
They aren't participating at all in the ceremony. They aren't complying with any sins.
Yes, they are participating in the "wedding"(use of quotes intentional) events. The cake will be cut and eaten in celebration of ... whatever it is that same sex couples are celebrating.
That makes a baker complicit in acknowledging the validity of what is occurring, and the government should not be able to force someone to act against their own conscience.
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