Here's why religious restoration acts are repressive

[Cecilie1200]

One might think that, with marriage equality finally coming to the Land of the Free, vendors who service the wedding business would be thrilled at the expansion of their customer base.

But, suddenly! Some of those vendors find a new set of "religious beliefs" that never served their purpose of discrimination before. Surely their business plan of excluding this new and affluent customer base cannot be sustained.

They'll get over their attitudes toward their fellow American citizens once their businesses fail from the public blowback.

Yeah. We've already seen how that works.

So the Free Market will do what morality cannot, i.e. eliminate discrimination.

Perhaps your government is not what is to be feared, but Capitalism is.

I'm all for letting market forces decide. Market forces decided Chick Fil A, Cracker Barrel, A&E, Memories Pizza, Masterpiece Bakery. Did I forget anyone whose fate was decided by market forces?

Let the marketplace decide.

So you think that these suddenly pious wedding vendor's new found religious beliefs can be wiped away by the free market? Which is more powerful; God or profit?

Which is more venerated; religious dogma or the bottom line?

The problem here is that you've started with a false premise, ie. that you were right, in this case regarding the assertion that religious beliefs = bigotry. Assuming that YOU are right is always a bad start that will inevitably lead to the wrong conclusion.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Yeah. We've already seen how that works.

So the Free Market will do what morality cannot, i.e. eliminate discrimination.

Perhaps your government is not what is to be feared, but Capitalism is.

I'm all for letting market forces decide. Market forces decided Chick Fil A, Cracker Barrel, A&E, Memories Pizza, Masterpiece Bakery. Did I forget anyone whose fate was decided by market forces?

Let the marketplace decide.

So you think that these suddenly pious wedding vendor's new found religious beliefs can be wiped away by the free market? Which is more powerful; God or profit?

Which is more venerated; religious dogma or the bottom line?

Make up your mind. Either religious businesses will be put out of business because gays won't patronize them and they must close or these businesses reject gay patronage as a marketing decision to increase income.

You want the market to decide. Then let it.

How does rejecting Gays as a marketing decision lead to higher incomes? It will lead to the business failing, not succeeding.

Since it's not your business, why do you care?

 

[Godboy]

The baker is not judging the customer unworthy. The baker is not committing a sin himself. A baker might bake a wedding cake for a teacher accused of molesting students and still refuse to deliver a cake to an underage orgy.

You see this as an issue of the merchant judging the customer where he is really judging himself and refusing to commit what that merchant considers a sin.

When the government redefines religion in its own image and decides what beliefs people should have then there is no separation of the church from the state. The state has seized control of religion and dictates what others should believe and what they should do in accordance with that belief.

But the merchants are making that determination with homosexual couples only. Had the merchant sincere concerns about sin, why doesn't that merchant vet each and every customer? That merchant could imperil his soul by selling to other sinners without knowledge! His only concern is disrespecting the gay couple.

What if I went to a muslim baker who does artistic cakes, and I ask him to make me a cake with Muhammad's face on it? Should his business be taken away if he refuses to do it?

 

[pinqy]

The baker is not judging the customer unworthy. The baker is not committing a sin himself. A baker might bake a wedding cake for a teacher accused of molesting students and still refuse to deliver a cake to an underage orgy.

You see this as an issue of the merchant judging the customer where he is really judging himself and refusing to commit what that merchant considers a sin.

When the government redefines religion in its own image and decides what beliefs people should have then there is no separation of the church from the state. The state has seized control of religion and dictates what others should believe and what they should do in accordance with that belief.

But the merchants are making that determination with homosexual couples only. Had the merchant sincere concerns about sin, why doesn't that merchant vet each and every customer? That merchant could imperil his soul by selling to other sinners without knowledge! His only concern is disrespecting the gay couple.

What if I went to a muslim baker who does artistic cakes, and I ask him to make me a cake with Muhammad's face on it? Should his business be taken away if he refuses to do it?

Of course not. It's not discrimination, and it would be a sin.

No one would argue that a Christian baker should be forced to so a blasphemous rendition of Jesus, either