The Governor of Indiana is the 20th Governor to sign a bill into law allowing the state’s businesses to refuse to serve same-sex couples on religious grounds. The so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act, widely supported by conservative groups but vocally opposed by others, has rightly caused a furious backlash. Epicurus believed in live-and-let-live. How dare the religious bigots discriminate in this way? What has it to do with doing business, anyway?
Obviously all forms of bigotry are wrong, but don’t business have the right to discriminate? Its their property, its their right what to do with it. If liberals oppose things like this, then conservatives will say that there is a left wing ‘war on Christianity’, as vindicated by liberal opposition. And even though I abhor what these business are doing, I would say that people have a right not to have their conscience violated in this way.
The law against gays was passed by a democratically elected legislature (we won’t go into how democratic it actually is). I think it is up to the people to turf the legislators out and overturn this bigoted piece of nastiness. But, talking about violation of conscience, Owen, imagine the state of my conscience: Congress here in America is trying to pass a law to over-ride the gun safety laws passed by our local government (Washington D.C), arrived at democratically and particularly important in view of the danger of assassinations in the capital. Then they have added a clause saying that this self-same government is forbidden at any time in the future to introduce any type of gun restriction. There are men walking round near my house with loaded guns, only I don’t know who is sane and who is not. I would say that people have a right not to have their conscience violated in this way as well, especially since we have no vote for Congress and no way of asserting our rights.