Interesting article from the local rag regarding faith groups losing numerous legal battles in regard to their discrimination toward homosexuality. The articles states right off the bat:
Faith organizations and individuals who view homosexuality as sinful and refuse to provide services to gay people are losing a growing number of legal battles that they say are costing them their religious freedom.
Here’s the thing: If you want to discriminate against someone because the interpretation of religious dogma you follow dictates that you disapprove of them, that’s fine. Bottom line is it is your life, your beliefs, your right. But don’t expect everyone around you to agree. And, if you run a business or provide a customer-oriented service, don’t expect that you’re going to get away with pushing your belief system on those people who call on your services. And, by all means, don’t be shocked or upset when the law comes down on the side of those people against whom you’ve discriminated just because you think your god would want it that way.
This is actually very simple: You don’t get to whine about this. You made the decision to try to do business with the unholy masses. You don’t have to. I know for a fact that there is a completely isolated Christian subset of the population within this country. I watched it at my old school. Teachers came straight from places like Bob Jones University or Pensacola Christian College. They spent their entire careers teaching at a Christian school. They met their spouses there (or played out their spinsterhood there). They had children, who they sent to the school where they taught. Upon graduating, the children then went to…yep, you guessed it, a college like Bob Jones. And the cycle started all over again.
Subsequently, the people from my old school often opted to do business solely with those from their church. They went to Christian doctors, Christian lawyers, Christian whatever. They even passed out a special Christian telephone book each year, in which only washed-in-the-blood merchants could appear. So see? There is a way of remaining untouched by the sinners.
Or you can pull your head out of…the sand and realize that, not counting those who believe in reincarnation or who are secretly Cylons, we’ve got one go-around on this planet. We’re all here together. We don’t have to bump uglies with each other, like each other, or even agree with each other. But we do have to live with each other (in the global sense, of course). There is no taking our toys and going home. The sooner we get that, the sooner we can get on with worrying about things that really matter.
