Cephus
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2007
- Messages
- 31,034
- Reaction score
- 11,932
- Location
- CA
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Conservative
But there is considerable reason to doubt that it is unconstitutional to allow the state to interfere in religious practice and force a citizen to act against the moral code of his religion. That was why we decided not to draft people into military duty at a time of war. If we thought it unconstitutional to make someone defend the country, it seems very odd that we should allow the state to force the baker to supply a ceremony his religion says is a severe crime against his God.
There has to be a limit to what "religious practices" actually are. Some are trying to argue that anything a religious person does and can link, no matter how tenuously, to their religious beliefs, is a religious practice. That is nonsense. I've got no problem with non-profit religious churches being able to decide who they marry and who they do not marry in their church. They can decide which religious ceremonies to carry out, they can decide not to marry gay people, they can decide not to marry interracial couples, people older than a certain age, I don't care. Religious ceremonies are just that, ceremonies, these people aren't actually married unless they get a piece of paper from the state anyhow. However, when it goes beyond churches, with people simply deciding that their religion doesn't allow them to perform services which they are charging the general public for, but only for certain groups of people, that's discriminatory and should not be permitted.
If you want to have a 501c(3) registered religious non-profit charitable organization that bakes cakes only for religious people, knock yourself out. If you try to do the same thing in a regular storefront that is open to the general public, you need to follow the laws that apply to all businesses, screw your religion.