The current discussion of whether bakers can refuse to make cakes for gay couples because their religious beliefs regard homosexuality as a sin reminds me of the 1960s civil rights debates.
In those days the debate was generally not overtly about religious beliefs. However, did Southern white churches uphold segregation and denial of rights to blacks? Of course they did. Those churches did not object to segregation. In Virginia, when the legislature closed the public schools rather than integrate them, churches provided a place for segregated religious schools. White Southerners generally believed that the biblical story of the separation of Abraham’s son that he had with his servant was because the servant was black, and therefore that God intends blacks to be separate.
I remember vividly a speech to Congress by Lyndon Johnson in support of the Civil Rights Act, in which he described the return trip to Washington by his cook and valet from his Texas ranch after the Christmas holidays. He was outraged that they had to drive straight through because they couldn’t find a motel that would accept blacks. “They live in the White House? They are employed by the president of the United States? And they can’t get a motel room? That’s not right!” The Civil Rights Act, passed later that year, prohibits discrimination based on race.
I cannot see that bakers or photographers have any more right to discriminate against gay people than motel and restaurant owners have to discriminate against blacks. If you want to engage in public commerce, then you must serve everyone, unless they are overtly threatening or violent. You cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation, religious beliefs or skin color.
We are all equally God’s children.
Jan Miller
Salt Lake City