http://news.yahoo.com/legally-married-boss-disagrees-130000885--politics.htmlYou know, it's just such a discouraging thing. And now, the conservatives have found a catchy tagline called
"religious liberty, to backdoor in oppression to gays in a less offensive (for now) way.. He makes the same old tired arguments about "tradition," and it falls flat because:
So let's examine this faulty logic Mr Huckabee is exposing, shall we: "I have with friends who are gay...."
"It’s like asking somebody who’s Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped-shrimp in their deli. ... or asking a Muslim to serve up something that is offensive to him or to have dogs in his backyard," he said. "We’re so sensitive to make sure we don’t offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can’t have the convictions that they’ve had for over 2,000 years.""Wow, so many reasons this is wrong and where to start. Let's just focus on the following 1.) historical false "I have friends" rhetoric, 2.) Idea that not mandating a religion's view into law is persecuting it, and 3.) "Jewish deli bacon wrapped shrimp" comment.
1.) Get suspicious whenever anybody says, "I have _____ friends." That fill in the blank for a group of people has traditionally (there's that word he loves) been used by racists, sexists, and bigots against different faiths to proclaim they aren't racist, sexist or bigoted. Kind of funny how most of those people can't name any of those friends, or state the last time they hung out, what they did together last, or produce a ____ friend who supports them. It's a self proclaimed unsupported statement, that could be supported sooooo easily. Of course, it won't be supported because none of these, frankly imaginary _____ friends are going to willingly stand by and support you while you trample them.....
2.) The idea that not mandating a religion's view into law is persecuting it is flatly incorrect. Whenever somebody talks about whose religion to make law, everybody sticks their hand up, except different religions have different beliefs banning or supporting different things and MANY conflict. There are over 300 different types of "Christianity" (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Calvinist, Mormon, Jesuit, Jehovah's Witness, Amish/Rhenish/Mennonite, and that's just the very beginning of a long list). Some religions really ban alcohol; we tried prohibition; it failed, miserably. Same goes for dancing, gambling, interracial marriage, EATING COW (Hindu) and just tons of others. There are even Christian Denominations who support gay marriage, and frankly they can't agree which parts of the bible they want to follow or ignore. So here's the question: Why are we legally allowed to eat cow, but gays can't get married? Those Hindus have believed in sacred cows for a loooong time.....
3.) the "Jewish deli bacon wrapped shrimp" comment is completely off the mark. Nobody forces Jews to open delis, or to serve bacon wrapped shrimp or any other menu item. If there is certain menu item served by the deli to the public, then you can't just refuse to serve that item to certain people due to being say .... Black, or Hispanic, or Buddhist, or Gay. Yeah, if the Deli owner CHOOSES to serve menu item #4 on the menu board, and some black guy comes up and orders a #4, the Deli owner had better not refuse to serve that black dude a #4 because he's black. Here, the deli owner is a baker who opened up a bakery, and the #4 is wedding cakes. No, you can't refuse to sell somebody a #4 just because they're insert thing here _______ (Black, White, Gay, Straight, etc).
If you're a Muslim and you believe alcohol is against your beliefs, ok, but don't take a job in a liquor store and refuse to handle liquor. If you're Jewish, I would recommend not taking jobs on shrimping boats or pork processing plants if you don't wanna handle shrimp or pork. Nobody is forcing anybody to do anything and nobody is forcing a deli owner to sell bacon wrapped shrimp or a baker to sell wedding cakes, but if they so chose to do so, they had better not be discriminatory and refuse to sell to a certain group of people.
Huckabee is generally on board with that. He just wants special privileges for his own religion. He'd be aghast at letting Muslims get a job in a liquor store while refusing to handle alcohol. If a Mormon in a restaurant refused to let him drink coffee, he'd be the first to complain. He wants to let Christians get a job in a pharmacy while refusing to dispense birth control. He wants to let Christians work in a county clerk's office - being paid by the government, no less! - while deciding on their own which complete strangers should and shouldn't be allowed to marry.
So, in this context "religious liberty," please note this only applies to Christians, and Hindus better not try to outlaw beef, mean forcing your beliefs on others by rewriting constitutions and laws to make your beliefs law, and thereby punishing those who don't follow your beliefs.
Completely. Inapplicable. Mr. Huckabee. I can't marry some girl without it being a massive fraud. You can just, keep right on believing what you do without passing laws about it. Simple.