Secular Businesses Claiming Religious Rights

There is a distinction between people and gov't. Gov't services and public (as opposed to privately owned) spaces are there to serve everyone. And you're right, we do have laws to prevent this stuff. My feeling, however, is that they've gone too far. If a business wants to cut off its noe to site its face, I think that they're foos, but it's their right. They'll pay for it in the long run.

 

I do not want American to be a place where gas stations and restaurants can deny people based on race

 

I want it to be a crime, if one is traveling they should not have to worry that no one will serve them cause they don't like their race,

 

The problem with the general argument here is that it suggests that any actions based of what an individual or business claims is a religious belief can never been deemed illegal in any circumstances. Your personal ideas that everyone has an individual religion just makes this position even worse. If I have a moral objection to paying taxes and you say that makes it part of my religion, wouldn’t it mean that it would be against my religious freedom for the government to make me pay any taxes?

In practice, there has already been a balance between religious freedom (and personal freedom in general) and the practical running of society. If nothing else, our own freedoms have to be balanced with the freedoms of other people out actions impact, directly or indirectly.

 

Sort of off-topic from what you were specifically trying to get at, but where this is really going to be a problem is Scientology.

(Some say it's practically a corporation amassing valuable real estate assets in prime locations and claiming tax exempt status)

related thread: Exposé on Scientology

 

Yet you think it should be the right of any American to deny custom to any business that doesn't fit its idea of political correctness. While I agree with your ideal, I disagree with its application in real life. People seem to feel free to deny business to those with whom they disagree, while demanding service from those who disagree with them. I think this is fundamentally wrong.

 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion

(1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural
(2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

How can there be a religion without a Deity?

 

yes, I think business that deny service based on race or gender should be fined heavily - if you want to open a business open to the public, you can't discriminate

if you want to open a private members only club... have at it, just don't pretend to be open to the public

 

kool so then a Jewish sign painter should be forced to print a sign with a swastika saying Jews for Hitler!

 

probably by reading the rest of the definition ya thank?


2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness


4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

 

nope, just like a Christian baker doesn't have to put Jesus sucks on the top of a cake, but if they sell wedding cakes they need to sell the same wedding cakes to everyone equally

your argument is like saying a restaurant must serve pork, no, BUT if they already sell pork, they need to sell it to everyone equally though

a weeding cake does not change based on the race or gender that buys it, it's still a wedding cake

if a Christian Nazi tries to buy gas at a Jewish gas station, yes they need to sell them the gas - now if the Christian is rude to them, they can then refuse service

 

Do we really need to make this a law? If businesses were allowed to not serve people based on their race, how many businesses would actually do it? 1%? 2%?
I'm guessing not even 1%.

Even supposing the business owner is the most racist person in the world, how many of them are going to turn paying customers away? (I can see how it might be an issue in the case of rentals or housing, but not other types of businesses)

Why impose a law when there's not an absolute need for it? Why not let a bakery turn away an African American person? What's the harm in that? It's not like they'll starve, and more than likely they can drive to another bakery.

If I'm a business with competition, how am I going to be able to compete if I turn away 20% of my would-be customers, and they go to my competitor? That could drive me out of business, if the competition has a huge 20% advantage like that.

In business, if your competitor even has a 3-5% advantage, that could make or break you.

 

I don't want America to be a place where I have to look at ugly chicks wearing skimpy clothes.
That doesn't mean I have the right to legislate my desires for some personal idyllic vission onto everyone else.
Having to see that 300-pound woman in a string tank top at Walmart is just part of life.

 

So if you decide to boycott businesses you shoud be liable to those same fines?

 

not the same at all, a customer can choose where they go to do business - that is a sad argument in defense of stores discriminating

a business open to the public can not discriminate based on race, gender or religion

start a private club open to members only if you want to discriminate

 

Explain to me how this is moral. A client can decide who to do business with based on any arbitrary criteria, but a business must sell to anyone with the money to buy. Seems a little one-sided to me.

 

The proof is that atheism doesn't profess to believe in anything. Is "not collecting coins" a hobby? Are you coin collector or a not-a-coin collector? Both are hobbies, according to your logic.