Christian Bakery Owners Pay Discrimination Fine

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by Shiva_TD, Dec 30, 2015.

  1. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oregon-bakery-owners-pay-damages-gay-wedding-cake-002836111.html

    This closely watched civil rights case pitted religious freedom against the laws prohibiting invidious discrimination by the owners of an enterprise in their refusal to sell their commercial products to a lesbian couple. After being found guilty of violating the Oregon civil rights laws the couple long refused to pay damages to the couple but has finally done so.

    They paid but did they learn?

    That is obviously the key question. Yes, they're entitled to their personal religious beliefs but they cannot impose those beliefs upon others ignoring the civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination by owners, managers, and employees of enterprise. Many wanted to focus on the fact that the couple denied service were lesbians but it didn't matter who the customer was. They could have been Jews or Blacks or little Purple People from Mars the discrimination is prohibited. It's the same violation of the civil rights of the person regardless of the reasons behind the discrimination.
     
  2. Junkieturtle

    Junkieturtle Well-Known Member Donor

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    I applaud anything that chips away at the special rights enjoyed by simply claiming to be religious, a definite unmistakable choice when compared to what some insist is the "choice" to be gay. But I would applaud this ruling even if it was reversed, even if this was a situation where a gay baker refused to make a cake for a Christian. Because we don't need that kind of (*)(*)(*)(*) being okay. We don't need throwbacks to the segregation era where only certain people were allowed in certain stores. We're better than that, at least collectively.

    If you're going to have a business open to the public, make sure it's open to the public. Otherwise just do things by appointment as a private citizen.
     
  3. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    It is not that simple, bakers were forced to do something they would never done, because new privileged class of people (gays) did not exist.
     
  4. democrack

    democrack Banned

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    Most liberals have gone way too far with PC horsesh$t . I own a store and if I dont want to sell to you , go elsewhere !
     
  5. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    In which case you’re in disagreement with the couple who ran the bakery since they only ever argued for a specific religious exemption to anti-discrimination laws, not a complete removal. You’d need to launch a quite different campaign for your complete freedom to discriminate proposal.
     
  6. Junkieturtle

    Junkieturtle Well-Known Member Donor

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    But they were not asked to do something they've never done. They've made baked goods hundreds if not thousands of times. And discrimination like this isn't just limited to gay folks. If it had been a minority couple, or a different religion, the results would be the same if it was challenged. Maybe these bakers just need to leave the judgments to their God, eh?
     
  7. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    I think you are trying to deceive honorable audience.
    There was no discrimination in this case.
    No discrimination whatsoever.
    They were happy to sell cake to anyone who pays money.
    They refused to execute special instructions.
    But they were never advertise that they do whatever they asked to do.

    It seems like you guys want homosexuals to secure so much power so they would act fourth branch of the government.
     
  8. Alucard

    Alucard New Member Past Donor

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    The owners of that bakery get no sympathy from me. They knew deep down in their hearts that their actions were wrong. Now, they learned a hard lesson by writing out a big check.
     
  9. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    Yep and you would be happy to install special gay secret service that look for deep down the hearts of people and jail anyone they find suspicious.
     
  10. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    no they were not, they could of choose to open a private club or not sell wedding cakes to anyone

    they choose to put themselves in this position, that was their choice
     
  11. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    no, the same gender couple wanted the exact same type of cake sold to everyone else, they did not refuse any "special" instructions

    what did you think was "special" about the request, you were very general in your post, saying they did it, but not saying what "it" was?

    we just want same gender, inter-racial, inter-religious, ect... couples to have the same rights as everyone else

    .
     
  12. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    Did they refuse to sell exact same type of cake?
    No they did not.
    They refused to sell special cake, that is a big difference.
     
  13. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    this cake is definitely have some differences.
    http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/ore...hed-for-sharing-lesbian-couples-home-address/
     
  14. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    no it doesn't, if they put those same decorations on other cakes, now, they could refuse to put little life like people on any cake and they would be fine then

    - - - Updated - - -

    again your being generic, what did the owners say they refused to do that was "special", nothing, they refused to make the cake for a gay couple.... period
     
  15. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    yea, it seems like you will insist that 2x2=5 just to support your team.
    there is an apparent difference between two types of cakes, why you are trying to deny that?
    I am sure bakers would not refuse to sell regular cake to anyone regardless their gender, race, or sexual orientation.
    Whole point of this judgment is to put insubordinate to their knees.
     
  16. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    it's the same wedding cake if it has two female figurines on top as if it have one make and one female

    no different then a white figurine and a black figuring... and saying that is not the same cake, though in the past sure some tried to say it

    a wedding cake is a wedding cake, if they offer figurines to put on top, then that is up to them, don't offer them if it give you problems with some customers



    .
     
  17. FreedomSeeker

    FreedomSeeker Well-Known Member

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    The Bible, in multiple places (it really means it) says to KILL gays, and these jokers were just not baking them a cake....so what's the problem, relatively speaking they were being way more accepting and loving towards gays than god/Jesus, so what's the problem!? God/Jesus should pay a fine for basically saying in the bible: "Don't bake them a cake? Hell, just KILL THEM!"

    - - - Updated - - -

    Clearly our society has outgrown god/Jesus. Clearly.
     
  18. FreedomSeeker

    FreedomSeeker Well-Known Member

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    In Sikhism, the bigoted, supremacist texts say not to marry people of other religions. Proving once again that NO religion is morally correct enough for our modern world...time to leave them all. Religions were started by supremacists, for supremacists.
     
  19. FreedomSeeker

    FreedomSeeker Well-Known Member

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    But we have to keep people from actually following the Bible and Islamic texts - people can't just go around following those belief systems or else their hatred towards gays will bring our modern world back to the primitive/barbaric times in which they were created. Yes, when they follow the Bible they should be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    If they follow the bible and take slaves, like Moses did, and like Jesus never once condemned (and he met with said slaver, Moses, during the "transfiguration", so Jesus approved of slavery there as well), then they should be JAILED. Too bad god/Jesus aren't moral enough to create a book that can actually be followed by moral people. Too bad they aren't actually real.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Christians won't actually learn until they don't bring forward (for their impressionable children) the parts of the Bible that say to kill gays. I think 70% of America hasn't learned, by that metric.

    - - - Updated - - -

    But your store is not the only store with the "No Negroes" sign in the window, so I can't go elsewhere.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Yes, deep down in people's hearts people know that the Bible is wrong, people know that the bible saying to kill gays is wrong, dead wrong.
    Some of us had the courage to leave that belief system....some don't.
     
  20. Alucard

    Alucard New Member Past Donor

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    That's impossible.
     
  21. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  22. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    The bakers bake cakes to sell to the general public and that's all the couple was asking for. The race, religion, ethnic heritage, gender, or gender preference in their personal relationships should not, and are not allowed to under the law, deny them the services of the enterprise.

    There isn't a "new privileged class" because commerce grants no "special privileges" to anyone as all people are entitled to purchase from a commercial enterprises without being subjected to invidious discrimination by the owners/managers/employees of the enterprise.

    This case is literally no different than the civil rights violations by enterprise that barred blacks from being customers in the racist Southern States.
     
  23. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    This has absolutely nothing to do with being PC.

    You own a store but owning a store is not a "right of the person" but instead is a "privilege granted by the state" where the state licenses the enterprise. The business license required carries with it an obligation to comply with the law and the laws prohibit invidious discrimination. If you refuse to comply with the law the license will be revoked and your store will be closed.

    Now if the bakery didn't want to sell wedding cakes to the public it didn't have to and no discrimination exists because it doesn't produce that product for anyone. If the bakery wants to sell wedding cakes to the public then it must sell wedding cakes to the entire public and cannot use invidious discriminatory criteria in deciding not to sell a wedding cake to specific customers. IT'S THE LAW that the business owner voluntarily agreed to when they obtained their business license.
     
  24. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    The bakers sell cakes for weddings.
    For store owners wedding means marriage of one man and one woman.
    So the cake was special order, that they do not serve.
    By the way they have ordered cake at that shop before, being gay at that time, so store had no problem selling cakes to the people of alternative sexual orientation.
     
  25. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    Constitutional law establishes that two adults, regardless of gender, can be lawfully married in the United States. The Constitution and related US Supreme Court decisions take precedent in defining who can and who cannot be married in the United States. This is not subject to religious opinion (definition) that carries with it no legal precedent in the United States.

    The bakery owners must comply with the US Constitution.
     

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