In a Facebook post linked to this conversation (here and here), old friend James Moore says he doesn’t understand the issue.
Jim, beginning with what I posted on Facebook…
An example is a bakery that refused to fulfill a special order of cupcakes for a gay couple on the grounds that their relationship was sinful under their religion. This is not a recent example, but I ran across it as real life example that happened in Indianapolis, in contravention to a City ordinance banning such discrimination.
The pro-side claims that not being permitted to pick customers based on religious dogma infringes on their religious freedoms; thus, the name of the act (Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act); those discriminated against will naturally also feel their rights have been violated.
To continue … or so I understand a possible consequence; I have not read the Act myself.
In my opinion, if we permit such legislation such as this Act (IRFRA), we may find ourselves with a society which becomes increasingly fragmented and insular – businesses pre-selecting customers based on criteria of a religious nature, rather than a business nature; alienation of minorities from the main streams of thought due to what they are rather than what they think; and the general loss of talent as the general pool of outcast talent, as it would become, becomes discouraged from participating in the United States. As the meritorious deployment of talent by American busiiness is an enormous reason for our long term dominance of the world economy, any loss of talent is an issue of concern to the general populace; a loss over what seems to me to be an irrational reason would be tragic.
I am not making legal arguments; these are economic forecasts of the results of permitting these Acts to stand and proliferate. A meditation upon the hierarchies of institutions and the limitations thus imposed upon institutions is, no doubt, in order, since the arguments I generally see on this topic tend to be both sides crying out about infringements on their freedoms without any deeper analysis occurring. Perhaps such can be found out on the web, but I know not where. I would start by constructing a religion in which human sacrifice is demanded, and then perhaps consult a lawyer to discover the legal decision not permitting such an activity, and the language limiting religious freedoms might be found therein.
