Pope Francis: better to be an atheist than a hypocritical Catholic

[Shiloh Raven]

I want them to sell their cakes to anyone who has money and wants to buy a cake. I also favor forcing racist restaurant owners to seat African-Americans with their white patrons and charge them the same prices for the same food. Public accommodations should not discriminate. If you want to discriminate, do it on your own time. No one is asking a store owner to approve of a gay wedding or black people, they are just asking store owners to treat everyone the same business wise. Selling a cake isn't approving or disapproving of someone's sexual orientation, it's selling a human being a cake. If you don't want to sell cakes, don't start a bakery.

Besides, plenty of Christians are fine with gay marriage. And among those who aren't fine with it, few would feel like they are going to hell for selling a cake to a gay person. Everyone's gotta eat.

What the heck... everyone else is talking about this, so here I go... QFT. LGBT American citizens deserve to be treated the same as straight couples and not be discriminated against because some Christian (or anyone else) wants to use their spiritual beliefs as an excuse to deny LGBT people service, a service they would provide to everyone else. If they cannot handle that, then they need to find another line of work, perhaps a church where they can be separated from the rest of the world and not have to associate with people they obviously find undesirable. There is no excuse for homosexuals or other LGBT American citizens to be discriminated against and denied equality in the United States in the year 2017. It is completely unacceptable.

 

[tadoflamb]

staff edit

As it so happens, I work for a small business owner. I'm blessed that he is a devout Catholic and a good man. He thanks me often for what I bring to his business and in return he treats me well. We have a good, healthy, Christian worker/employee relationship.

It's just not that complex for me.

Here's a link to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the dignity of work and the rights of workers. I hope you find it helpful.

The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

 

[Shiloh Raven]

I'll bet Saul said the same thing when he pelted Christians to death with rocks before his conversion on the road to Damascus and meant it in exactly the same way. How dare you interfere with his religiously motivated rock throwing?

Religious freedom refers to a carefully and specifically defined right that does not apply to refusal to sell goods to one type of people that you will sell to another type of people while operating a public accommodation such as a restaurant. Civil rights law is built on the understanding that religious freedom doesn't encompass what you describe.



Who's asking you to marry another woman or to officiate at a religious marriage ceremony between two gay people? I thought you were talking about baking a cake.

I don't see anywhere in the bible where it says "Thou shalt not sell cake to gay people. Let them eat not cakes!".



No one who is listening to the Church feels that being gay is a sin. That's the way God makes some people. The Church is still officially against things like gay sex and gay marriage, but not all of us are. Remember, you're in the Liberal Catholic forum. Granted, even liberals are somewhat divided in the church and on the forum on the question of gay marriage in a moralistic sense, but I don't think anyone agrees with ostracizing gays and refusing to sell them food.

Well said, Fish. And yes, this is a Liberal Catholic forum and there are specific rules in this forum concerning showing respect for the Catholic Church, for Catholic theology, and for Pope Francis. Non-Catholics are not allowed to come into this forum to argue and debate with the Catholics of this forum. They may post in fellowship but non-Catholics cannot come here and debate contentiously over why they disagree with Catholics. But it has become apparent that these rules are being dismissed.

 

[Fantine]

Some "religious freedom" (and I use the term loosely) cases may have been filed for other reasons.

I really believe Hobby Lobby's was. Hobby Lobby is owned by evangelicals. It's headquarters are in OKC, and Oklahoma is one of the most conservative, if not the most conservative, state in the country, home of the odious Scott Pruitt who wants to poison our air and water and frack from sea to shining sea.

And I think Hobby Lobby just wanted to get guvment off their backs. Health care was an expense, but what kind of loophole could they find that could strike a death blow to healthcare and save them money.

Hobby Lobby’s secret agenda: How it’s quietly funding a vast right-wing movement

Shame on all businesses who use the Gospel message of Jesus to discriminate or exploit their employees economically by denying them benefits.

 

[FreeinChrist]

MOD HAT

This thread had a clean up off topic and problem posts.

The topic is in the OP, so please stick to the topic. As a reminder, the site rules include:
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