I get that religious people do not want to be discriminated against. Indeed, they have lots of protections in the laws already protecting them from discrimination in employment, public accomodations, and so on. And they have lots of special treatment in the form of exemptions from laws that constrain everyone else. And they have RFRAs — state and federal — no other group has that sort of protection.
But these highly-protected, coddled people want even more — they want to deny these rights to homosexuals. They want to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation. They want to be free to ignore general societal laws that would require them to ignore the sexual orientation of students, employees, customers, etc. And then they turn around, after all the exceptions, exemptions, accommodations, special treatment, protections from discrimination that they enjoy, and claim that anyone who does not agree to give them even more, or perhaps more accurately described as "ever more” special treatment. And not because they are part of a religious order or organization, and not because anyone is forcing them to engage in business or to do anything except not discriminate — but because of a distaste for someone else’s sexual orientation and a religious theory of complicity with evil — thus making all homosexuals being evil and tools of the devil. And not only that, they claim that those of us who think that religious adherents should not get a unit veto on all general welfare and social justice and human rights legislation and norms are in fact the true bigots for not giving them everything. Really! You’d think that religious people were being persecuted and hounded and locked up to hear the hew and cry being raised, when in fact, all that is being done is to say — secular and sacred are separate in our constitutional system — and that those who wish to live their values must then find ways to do so that do not conflict with established secular social justice norms. I get that they don’t like being equated with racial bigots of decades past and present. But, "by their fruits shall you know them,” — can a religious motivation ever expunge the taste of the bitter fruit being pushed? Status-based discrimination is a bitter fruit indeed and it is what is being pushed by some religious adherents. No one is requiring them to like homosexuality, to become homosexual, to befriend a homosexual (though I suspect Jesus would have something to say about each of these that some Christians would not like to hear), or to do anything at all except to treat them as people entitled to equal rights and dignity. This is indeed about animus toward homosexuals —even if it is sourced in or clothed in religious garb and even if that source is genuine and sincerely believed based on something other than culturally received bigotry. We as a society can make judgments about the proper bounds of treatment of everyone and do not need to exempt people from respecting the worth and dignity of each person just because of a religious belief or the even more tenuous complicity theory. I kinda like this wikipedia definition of bigotry: Bigotry is the state of mind of a bigot: someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats or views other people with fear, distrust, hatred, contempt, or intolerance on the basis of a person's opinion, ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, gender,gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics. “as a result of their prejudices” — does the source of the prejudice, even if it is sincerely held religious beliefs make it any less of a prejudice? Steve -- Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017 Director of International Programs, Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice http://iipsj.org Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8567 http://iipsj.com/SDJ/ "The aim of education must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life achievement." Albert Einstein
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