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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe right’s “cake” insanity: You won’t believe how it’s trying to deflect the Indiana backlash
How absurd have Republicans gotten in their defense of "religious freedom" laws? They now argue "cake is speech"JOAN WALSH
Cake is speech.
Thats what Indiana Baptist pastor Tim Overton told NPRs Steve Inskeep Thursday morning, defending his states controversial religious freedom law. I thought it was so funny, I immediately tweeted it.
But as the day went on, it became clear that Overtons argument wasnt some fringe theory: Its shaping up as a core tenet of one compromise approach to religious freedom laws thats under consideration, in the wake of the backlash to the Indiana law, which Overton fervently supported as written. Its at the heart of the fix to the law Jeb Bush pushed Wednesday night with pro-gay rights Republican donors.
Heres how the pastor tried to explain it: Critics who say Indianas Religious Freedom Restoration Act would let businesses routinely deny service to LGBT Americans are wrong. I dont think any RFRA anywhere would say, Im not gonna give you a hotel room, Im not gonna give you a hamburger, or gasoline or groceries, Overton told Inskeep. Thats outside the bounds.
But just as a religious leader should be able to decide, according to the tenets of his or her faith, whether to preside over gay marriages, Overton argued, so should a florist or a baker get to decide whether his or her artistic ability should be part of a gay wedding.
I think most Americans would agree that a pastor like myself should not be compelled by the government to use my speech to support someone elses perspective. I think that has parallels to the cake maker. The cake maker is using his or her artistic ability to make a cake and that cake communicates something. I think that cake is speech, that says we celebrate this union. I just dont think they should be forced by the government to use their speech to support someone elses perspective .I would like the line to be drawn in services that involve speech.
more
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/03/the_rights_cake_insanity_you_wont_believe_how_its_trying_to_deflect_the_indiana_backlash/
boston bean
(36,225 posts)Uh, NO you don't!
LGBT needs to be come a protected class in the constitution of the US.
Let's get it in the ERA.... women are still not recognized as full human beings... let's update it to reflect the reality of today!
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)You can sit at the lunch counter, you can even get lunch, just no dessert for you?
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Why can't people understand that?
boston bean
(36,225 posts)Can I refuse a religious crank one?
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)But then art of any kind is generally wasted on RWNJs.
I'm kinda hungry, so I'm having trouble sorting this all out.
TlalocW
(15,394 posts)THIS?
BOOM! Hamburger cake!
TlalocW
ohnoyoudidnt
(1,858 posts)Bettie
(16,151 posts)But next month, who knows what will be "speech".
Honestly, they may be trying to turn back the clock on everything.
Before long, they'll say it isn't just "teh gayz", it will be minorities of all stripes, women etc.
I'm already seeing the arguments from so-called libertarians (who have never met a Teapublican they won't vote for) arguing that all civil rights legislation is wrong because...freedom!
Sadly, my brother is one of these. He loves to explain that it is him, a white, heterosexual man, who is really oppressed because he has to work with people of other races (who, in his mind, are all inferior in every way, even the few "good ones" . He is oppressed because his company has a few female drivers who are also inferior to him in his magnificence as a white man.
We should, he tells me, go back to the "good old days" when minorities and women knew their place and were properly respectful to people like him.
Ugh. My own brother makes my skin crawl. Which makes me feel guilty for not wanting to see him. I'm glad he lives far enough away that visiting is not really an option.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)what with their worries over prices of cotton and slaves, envied the darkies their simple lives, singing on the levees and whatnot.
What I'm trying to get at here is that there is a type of person in whom the capacity for empathy does not extend beyond the self. Your brother sounds like he falls in that class.
Bettie
(16,151 posts)He has zero empathy for anyone but himself.
Me, I feel bad for not liking him.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Founding fathers, drink!!
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)but I do recall that Alexander Hamburglar is generally credited with it.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)then you agree to serve anyone who walks in the door willing to pay for your service.
NEWS FLASH!!! Gay people are...GASP...are part of that public as well! You DO NOT get to pick and choose!
Either serve the whole public or GTFO of running a public business!
WTH is this so hard for Neanderthal republicans to figure out???
Orsino
(37,428 posts)Coventina
(27,224 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Vive la révolution!
Pisces
(5,604 posts)etc. I'm sure these religious people would object to providing flowers for known satanists?? No they don't. They don't get to
pick and choose customers by interrogating them to make sure they attend Sunday services. What kind of
bullshit is this. It is specific to LGBT and they know it.
Trillo
(9,154 posts)The example is oversimplified, but has a little truth. An individual cake maker is likely an artist. It would make sense that the cake maker was celebrating someone else's union if they made the cake and gave it to the couple for free. But since they are selling the cake, it is just another transaction.
It has everything to do with the direction of money. They would also be supporting the couple if, instead of a cake, they gave the couple money, or another gift.
I wonder how many heterosexual unions those cake makers who sell cakes "are supporting."