Layer Cake of Conscientious Objection

By now we all know the story. A gay couple asked a religious baker to make them a wedding cake, and he responded he would do anything else but that his religious beliefs prevented him from baking a cake.

The result was a law recently vetoed in Arizona which if passed would have allowed private business to refuse service, employment or what not.

Having grown up during the 50’s I have a certain negative feeling about that. I see in my mind the lunch counters, the buses, the marches over the bridges, and the fire hoses, and most of all, the lynches and the bombed out churches which lasted till just past the mid 60’s, finally encompassing me.

But this nation is NOT that nation.

To my knowledge, in the modern world, only the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa attempted a religious belief argument in favor of this discrimination, by some truly tortuously wrought ‘logic’.

But these struggles were not about the BENEFIT of purchasing a wedding cake. These struggles were to deny equal opportunity to all, or to ensure it.

Beginning with AT LEAST World War 1, the USA recognized the idea of a conscientious objector to war. In this link remains the official US govt position on becoming a CO. To become a CO was not easy. HERE is Wikipedia’s blurb on this.

As a citizen I fail UTTERLY to see the civic purpose of any person group or couple using the vast coercive power of govt to compel a contract on another private citizen who truly has RELIGIOUS, AND THEREFORE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION, in this manner.

In fact this action has taken someone (me) who believes that any two adults should be able to construct any kind of relationship they want, and call it anything they want, and to hell with the rest of the planet, and instead brought me down squarely against the idea of COMPELLING someone to do your particular bidding if you feel set upon.

Some people cannot wait to feel grievance, and then act on it to force others to relieve their personal issue. Such people can easily GO TOO FAR. As a former proud outside agitator, I have to tell you, THIS is too far.

Gov Brewer did the right thing in vetoing a law which might have allowed refusal of employment to certain people based on PREJUDICE, but now we also have an untenable situation.

No law should bar employment by personal discrimination, nor should it allow a class of any sort to be set upon, but this action to make a contract compulsory is a great wrong, IN THIS CASE. I am certain there are those who have true religious objection to people of the same sex marrying. I know there are those who also feel abortion is murder. That is faith, not fact, but must be respected and more importantly TOLERATED. Certainly we can devise a legal, short  test for this and exempt such conscientious objectors from compulsory service.

If we allowed those who had such objection to be exempt from defending the nation and our families, certainly we can find a simple process to exempt people from being compelled to BAKE GAY WEDDING CAKES.

REALLY, people.