rickc rickc:
I have expressed my views on Chick-fil-A. The owner/CEO can say what he likes about gay marriage, that is his right. No one is claiming that the company is discriminating against gays in the workplace or refusing service to gays in the restaurants. If his viewpoint bothers you that much, than don't eat there. Its simple.
What's ironic is that up until the gay marriage issue blew up not that many people bothered with Chick-fil-a...myself included. When I was told that there were protesters blocking the lone CFA in Sacramento I made a point of going there with Mrs. Bart to have dinner.
When we got there we saw a bunch of bizarre looking individuals
lawfully picketing and protesting and they were calling out to the customers but it was generally polite.
While we were having dinner we got treated to the sight of the CFA manager walking out to the protesters with some water (it was a hot day) which was politely accepted.
Before we left we noticed a sign in the window of the CFA that said to the effect: "CFA asks our customers to respect the First Amendment rights of our protesters the same way we ask them to respect our First Amendment rights."
I've been a loyal customer ever since.
rickc rickc:
I think that the SCOTUS got it wrong when it came to Hobby Lobby. I do not think that an employer should get to interject their personal/religious beliefs into someone else's healthcare decisions. They should offer the healthcare insurance and leave the medical decisions to the patient and their doctor. Not only should there be a separation between the Church and the state, there should be a separation between the employers religious beliefs and their employees (unless the business is some kind of Church. That I would allow). No one should have to belittle themselves and concede to someone else's religious beliefs just to get a job. Religion should be on someone's free time. It does not belong in any branch of the government. It does not belong in the workplace. It sure as hell does not belong in any thing to do with healthcare.
I necessarily disagree. An employer should not be forced to provide a
benefit that conflicts with their views...religious, political, moral, or
trivial.
Now, if with Obamacare there had been a payroll tax and then the choices of plans and etc. were directly administered by the government (like in the UK with the NHS) not only would I be okay with that but I suspect that Hobby Lobby would have been okay with it, too.
But with Obamacare employers were forced to select from a number of coverage options and all of those options offered a number of services that were offensive to the beliefs of Hobby Lobby.
Hobby Lobby was then placed in the situation of having to endorse a specific plan and thereby endorse abortion.
Thus the court case.
The court then reaffirmed the principle of their Hobby Lobby decision in the recent Masterpiece Bakeshop case and while the core of the USSC case pivoted on the bias of the Colorado Human Rights Commission the opinions in the case spoke to how religious freedoms don't give way to public accommodation.
Meaning that the Christian bakery has to offer the same standard services to all customers but they can reserve their artistic creations within their deeply held views. Masterpiece reserved the right to refuse to make Halloween cakes and other non-Christian cakes consistent with their views.
Next up I see the court ruling that unions can't force all employees of an employer to pay union dues and that'll be the end of the so-called 'closed shop' in the USA. That case addresses people being forced to support unions that engage in political speech counter to the views of the people being forced to pay dues.
Do you see the trend here?
The court is saying that you can't be forced or compelled to act outside your deeply held beliefs.
I agree with that opinion because I've long held that people have a
Right Not to Act.
You can't make me is to me a fundamental and necessary human right. Like other rights it will have limitations, but those limitations should be few and of a sincerely compelling importance.
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