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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Maybe the people involved in this debate can understand one another better if you shift the discussion about religious freedom away from homosexuality.  I read this news article about orthodox airline passengers trying to avoid sitting next to women for fear of accidentally touching them (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/us/aboard-flights-conflicts-over-seat-assignments-and-religion.html?_r=0), and it provides an interesting parallel to the bakery scenarios we've all been discussing.  So here's my hypothetical ....

Let's say a regular old bakery (not some specialized religious bakery) is run by some guy who happens to be ultra-orthodox, and so he refuses to sell to women or let them enter his store, because it's against his sincere religious beliefs to have contact.  Is that defensible because he's just practicing his religion, which prohibits contact with the opposite sex?  Or is it discrimination?

To me, that's unlawful discrimination.  He's free to practice his religion, but his religion does not require him to run a bakery.  If he chooses to run a bakery and sell bread, then he needs to comply with the various laws of the community, including the anti-discrimination laws.

I suppose (changing the hypothetical substantially) that if his store was a specialized religious bakery which provides bread only for particular ultra-orthodox ceremonies, and thus his bakery be shunned by rest of the community if he ever sold to a woman, then I could possibly agree that the ultra-orthodox principles are a core element of the business.  But even that's a stretch, because it's so fact specific.

Thoughts?[/quote]

You are exactly right.  When something like this happens to a white Christian woman, you will see OUTRAGE.  Just wait.

[/quote]

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