There is a lot of talk going on out there, in today’s America, throughout the mainstream media and social media about the “Religious Freedom Laws” that are currently being protested, en mass, by advocates of gay marriage and more generally, LGBT rights. These laws are regularly being compared to the Jim Crow Laws of the segregationist South, insomuch as certain business (bakeries, protographers) are refusing to sell their services for the purpose of Same Sex Marriages. Some see it as a refusal to serve the person and accept their money, as was the case in the segregated South. But in the case of the Religious Freedom Laws, the heart of this issue is much, much different.
For the Christian baker or photographer who refuses to cater a gay wedding, the refusal is not about the money at all, but the ceremony. And concerning Christian participation, or the lack thereof, in other religious ceremonies, Saint Paul admonished the Church in his Epistles not to consume meat sacrificed to idols. This admonition is very apt for us today. I don’t believe he would be ok with us cooking the meat for them from the ceremony, though not eating it. The Christians were to have nothing to do with it. This leads me to think, if a Christian’s conscience is sensitive enough that he does not want to participate in the ceremony of homosexual “marriages” by choosing not to photograph their wedding, I sincerely believe this needs to be protected, and honored, and that it is ultimately protected under the Bill of Rights. Refusing to participate in a ceremony that one does not believe in does not equate to racism, though this is exactly how it’s being sold in today’s culture war.
Gradually Brightened 