This is literally a comment in a thread; the "they" I was referring to (@98WHZX9) is only like 4 or 5 comments up in the thread, which I would have assumed you had read through before responding to my previous comment. In fact, "it is their business, the should be able to do what they want" is literally the entire comment, clearly visible right there in the thread by simply scrolling up. But beyond that, who the "they" is is completely irrelevant, both given the fact that I already gave the entire direct quote I was referencing and also because everyone on here is anonymous anyways. Furthermore, I feel my comment was explicitly clear: no, you should not be allowed to discriminate, even on the grounds of religion or personal beliefs.
So, in regards to your questions, no, a religious business owner should obviously not be allowed to discriminate, even if it is over religious reasons. I'm not sure what you mean by "a customer should be able to force a business to serve them even though it would go against their freedom of practicing their religion"..? You are perfectly free to personally practice your own religion, but as a business you cannot discriminate...it's as simple as that. If your religion is anti-gay, and you own a bakery, you cannot refuse service to a gay person for being gay, because that's just discrimination. If that's going to be a problem for you, then operating a business is not for you, because a business legally cannot, and rightfully should not, discriminate. Just as you have your freedom of your religion, other people also have their freedom from your religion. A customer cannot force you to be gay, but denying service to a customer because they are gay is definitionally discriminatory on the owner's part, regardless of why they believe it.
So unless you, like @98WHZX9, are implying that you believe you should be allowed to discriminate, then I don't see what the issue here is, because that's all this is about...
@KommieKillerKlan1yr1Y
If the owner stated that the policy was to respect his religion and listed many things like on a sign and the customer went against his his religious beliefs or asked for a service that he couldn't based on his religion, he should and would be able to deny service.
@VulcanMan6 1yr1Y
Just so it's clear, you are simply arguing that people should be able to discriminate, so long as they make it clear that their policy is to discriminate? Is that genuinely what you're proposing here? That discrimination is okay if you just state that you want to discriminate?
And I would love for you to be more specific in your examples. What exactly are customers doing that "go against his religious beliefs"..? Beyond that, what would be the difference between, say, a religious person denying service to gay people vs a non-religious person denying service to gay people, and why would one be okay but not the other? If you deny a service for all Read more
@WhatisaWoman?11mos11MO
He is arguing that you cannot force a business owner to serve you, because that would be known as slavery. Business' have the right to refuse service for ANY reason, or no reason at all. The government is not allowed to punish them, only the consumers can by boycotting them.
@VulcanMan6 11mos11MO
Not only is that not what slavery is, but no one is even doing that regardless.
More importantly, businesses do not have the right to refuse service for ANY reason, because discrimination is not an allowed reason. If your reason for refusing service to someone is "because they're black/gay/trans/etc.." then that is discrimination, and you will be rightly punished for doing so.
Ironically, we got this law (Civil Rights Act) in the first place partly because of mass boycotts during the Civil Rights movement, which I'm sure you'll be happy to know (/s).
@starcatcher_sueLibertarian11mos11MO
While it is true that businesses cannot refuse service based on race, gender, or sexual orientation as it would be considered discrimination under the Civil Rights Act, it is important to consider the implications of forcing business owners to provide services that go against their deeply held religious beliefs. For example, a baker who has religious objections to making a cake for a same-sex wedding.
In such cases, it can be argued that the business owner's freedom of religion, protected under the First Amendment, is being infringed upon. The question then becomes: where do we draw the… Read more
@KommieKillerKlan1yr1Y
I would personally wouldn't deny gay people in the first place, I don't know any religion where you can't talk to gay people and you can't force people to follow your religion you can only let them respect your religion. There are no religions that say you can't interact with gay people, any business owner can deny a service because they don't want to do that service because of their beliefs. You keep on confusing deny of the service and denying of the customer you can't deny someone if they are gay but you can deny service if you are asked to do something against your religion there is no denying of that fact, you can't make somebody especially the owner to do something that they don't want to do.
