Paracelsus

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Christian bakers fined for refused to receive order from gay couple

now that the General Election in the UK has begun to recede into the past, I feel I can start posting again. UK readers may have heard of the case of the Belfast based bakery firm that was fined £500 for refusing to bake a cake for a gay couple with the motto "Support Gay Marriage". and theSesame Street characters Bert and Elmo on it. The firm argued unsuccessfully that it was an issue of "religious freedom" in that they had deeply felt moral and religous views against such an "abomination".

Speaking as a practising Roman Catholic I can certainly see where the firm is coming from- sometimes the state SHOULD recognize and respect individual's deeply felt religious and moral views. The trouble is that "freedom for the pike can mean death for the minnow" as one philosopher observed- "religious freedom" is NOT and was NEVER meant to be an open ended right- despite what some pundits and politicians claim- any more so than freedom of speech is meant to justify inciting mob violence.

As God/Allah/Jehovah seems to have better things to do with His/Her/Its time than govern humanity directly, we can only claim partial knowledge of what He/She/Its desires are.

Also different things are or were considered "abominations" in the eyes of God at different times or by differing faiths. For example the consumption of pork products and alcoholic beverages are considered "immoral" by Muslims and Orthodox Jews- should we therefore ban both pork chops and whiskey? Social movements favouring the emancipation of slaves and the franchise for women(in both the United States and Great Britain) were considered "abominations" in the eyes of God and a violation of the natural order, as was opposition to the Vietnam War.

As for arguments that religious objections trump all other considerations, it is worth noting that the Arab based boycott of Israel and companies that did business with it( arguably based on the Koran's unflattering depiction of Jews as a group) is considered a violation of US federal and state laws forbidding discrimination based on religious and racial grounds.

So what do YOU think?

Terry

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