“There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook warned Monday in a Washington Post opinion piece against Indiana’s newly passed Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It matters not to the corporate big shot that President Bill Clinton signed a federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993 (which current House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi supported) or that then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama voted for a similar law in 1998.
It was one thing for Democrats to support religious freedom when there was no downside to standing up for the devout. Today there could be a cost. An Indiana baker might refuse to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple and cite the new law if the couple were to sue him or her. Cook believes that such discrimination would be “bad for business.” I agree. Cook also believes that the baker wouldn’t have the right to say no. I do not agree with that.
When Obama first ran for the White House, he supported a ban on same-sex marriage. If Cook had a problem with Obama’s stand, he kept it to himself. Years later, Obama announced that his position had evolved and he had come to support same-sex marriage. Voila: Now anyone who disagrees with same-sex marriage is a bigot and thus has no rights.
Except religious dissenters do have rights. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that family-owned corporations have religious rights. In the 5-4 Hobby Lobby decision, the big bench recognized CEO David Green’s right to get around an Affordable Care Act mandate that his employer-sponsored health plan offer employees contraceptives that, Green argued, “risk killing an embryo.”
Last year, federal court rulings legalized same-sex marriage in Indiana. In a more tolerant world, the court rulings would leave gay couples free to marry and religious dissenters free to not cater same-sex weddings. Each side would win the right to be true to itself.
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1 comment:
Way to go Tim Cook in speaking truth to power regarding opening your pie hole about the law in Indiana affirming the right of people not to do business with those their religious beliefs are in conflict with!
Now look around and see if you can muster the courage to address the Saudis and their ilk who summarily execute those with your preferred orientation.
Are you driven by principle or money, Mr. Cook? (We know the answer.)
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