According to Kirsten Powers and Jonathan Merritt, it’s an injustice—akin to the days of Jim Crow—for a Christian baker, photographer or any other vendor to refuse to service a gay wedding on the basis of held Christian belief. You need to read the whole article if you have not already, but they wrote:
Before considering legal rights, Christians wrestling with this issue must first resolve the primary issue of whether the Bible calls Christians to deny services to people who are engaging in behavior they believe violates the teachings of Christianity regarding marriage. The answer is, it does not.
Nor does the Bible teach that providing such a service should be construed as participation or affirmation. Yet Christian conservatives continue to claim that it does. So it seems that the backers of these bills don’t actually believe what they are saying.
While the Bible doesn’t speak to the professions of baker or photographer or florist, it does speak to every profession. Scripture places the focus on glorifying God in all that we do. If something we say or do dishonors God and brings Christianity into ill repute, it is sin. And if an aspect of our work causes another to sin, then perhaps we need to rethink what we’re doing. How’s that for putting scripture before the Law? Continue reading
