Aren't laws that give Christians the right to refuse goods and services to a same-sex couple for their wedding similar to Jim Crow laws?
Same-sex marriage proponents want us to believe that sexual orientation
is morally equivalent to race. This is
the logic they have been successful in advocating. They believe
that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation equates to
discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity. If this is right, then
Christians must condemn refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding as sin
just as they would condemn refusing to provide flowers for an
interracial wedding as sin. But sexual orientation is not the same
thing as race. The reality is that people in countless businesses
are now being coerced into approving
the moral status of same-sex
relationships because they are being forced to participate. Most of these businesses would
not discriminate against same-sex couples or
individuals in general, but only when participation would require them to make a moral
statement that violates their Christian commitments. Refusing
to bake a cake with a message celebrating a same-sex marriage is
simply not the same thing as refusing to seat a same-sex couple for dinner.
One is an act of despicable discrimination. The other is an act
consistent with religious conviction concerning the nature of marriage and
sexual morality.