[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqfCdVUH4WY[/youtube]
Ben Shapiro does a fine job of explaining why the gay marriage movement has nothing to do with tolerance or equality, but is, in truth, an Orwellian assault on freedom of religion.
Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.
Insulting one of my readers is not acceptable.
I have spent considerable time in Indiana. It is a wonderful state, but this legal concept is clearly an extension of Jim Crow, unintentional though it may be. Not a good idea. If you serve a non-violent public, then you must serve them. without compromise.
Barry:
Invoking Jim Crow is unfair, inaccurate, and deeply inflammatory. The Indiana baker, and all others who have been forced into court, served gay individuals and couples as regular customers, but refused service for gay weddings because of religious convictions. Gay couples can go to many other bakers for their weddings but choose instead to force their beliefs on others and in the process deny hard working people a livelihood by dragging them into expensive court battles and nasty boycotts. This is tyranny. It is also a serious erosion of religious liberty.
If someone enters into a contract to serve the public, and opening a shop constitutes an implied contract, then serve those who are your natural constituency: those with the cash to buy your goods. Everything else is a hybrid of academic hyperbole coupled with emotionalism.
How would you feel if someone, disguised as a Jew is refused service and treated with ill will, no matter how low keyed? Not right, but lawyers could make a case for the immoral, and often do.
If I am refused service because I am a Jew I go to another shop. I have no desire to give my money to people who don’t want to serve me.
Religious liberty is not academic hyperbole.
The cool response you are describing represents an early stage in the ghetto’s evolution, as opposed to that which we in our modern life have developed. No service at hotels, no inter marriage — as in miscegenation. Free choice for some. I do not believe you, or anyone else, would like that.
Your projection entirely.
Sure. And not without reason.
If you were a caterer, would you like to be forced to serve at a Neo-Nazi Rally?
I completely disagree. Religious freedom is one of the cornerstones of our nation. People have the right to worship and believe as they wish, and to act in accordance with their beliefs, so long as they bring no harm to others. Refusing to cater a gay wedding brings no harm to anyone. Forcing a person to participate in acts which they find religiously reprehensible abridges our core freedoms.
It does indeed remind me of Jim Crow laws, but the other way around: Religious people are being discriminated against by the government, which is in thrall to the far left.
A little O/T, but not Baltimore. From the late great post modern philosopher:
https://youtu.be/bK9VoToteGU
That video is really interesting…
Here is but one version I Googled of an old Chasidic tale:
A famous sage was traveling by wagon from town to town. In each place he stopped, crowds greeted him with great honor.
Some people asked for his blessing, while others asked for his advice. The sage responded to each person kindly and quickly.
“I want to ask a favor,” said the wagon driver once they were back on the road. “Never in all my life have I received honors such as you receive in each town we visit. Before the next town, could you change clothing and places with me? The people will think I am the sage, and they’ll shower me with honors. I will give them blessings, and I will give them advice. For once in my life, I would like to experience that feeling.”
“As you wish,” said the sage.
They changed clothing and places, and sure enough, the people in the next town greeted the disguised wagon driver with adulation.
One man pushed through the crowd. “I need your advice desperately,” he said to the sage, and he went on to describe his problem.
The wagon driver tried to think of an answer, but every solution only seemed to create more problems.
Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration. “This is really a very simple question,” he said. “In fact, it is so simple even my wagon driver knows the answer. Why don’t you ask him?”
In our own lives, we are often ready to criticize those in positions of leadership and authority, whether it be the rabbi, the pastor, the school principal or anyone else in a similar position.
From a distance, what they do may seem easy and uncomplicated, and we, of course, see with perfect clarity where they could use improvement.
But appearances are deceiving. They spent many years preparing for those positions, and we are not qualified to second-guess everything they do. Better that we should turn that powerful lamp of scrutiny on ourselves and become the very best that we can possibly be.
That guy with the hard billed cap gets around! Heh!