It is a question of authority. Is the bible a higher authority than a states laws? Liberals say no.
A true Christian has a Christian life, period.
You’re asking the wrong question. It should be “Can a Christian’s religious life be SEPARATED from his public life?”
They will pay. Every knee will bow.
Seems pretty clear to me.
We just have a criminal feral government that ignores laws/amendments that it doesn't like.
Its pretty pathetic when you feel you should excuse your beliefs.
It is time to be righteously angry and BOLDLY refuse to be bowed by these cretins.
Perhaps Christian bakers, florists, photographers, wedding planners, singers and all others that offer products and services for Christian weddings could retreat to the Church in this way:
1. Stop advertising and offering wedding products and services to the general public.
2. Offer wedding products and services to churches only.
2a. An engaged couple or their financial supporters place an order through a church (where the wedding will take place) or through a list of planners that the church provides and the church or planner forwards the order to the business that is to provide the wedding product or service.
2b. No money passes through the church except the normal fee for the wedding service and rent of any church facilities used for wedding guests. Money may pass through the church referred planner.
2c. The wedding couple, their parents or backers pay directly to the business where the order was placed or to the church referred planner.
Discussion:
The Church could be used here as a sanctuary for Christian businesses to steer wedding related business through churches that perform traditional weddings.
The business for churches would be non-financial orders or requests only or an act to provide a referral list of planners or facilitators; no cash flow through a church is required.
Legal challenges to this business flow would fail basic business law. The wedding aspect of such businesses would cease to be public and become specialized to churches or their referenced planners only.
Engaged Christians or their planners would adapt to ordering only through a Church or to church referenced planners. In practice a wedding planner could request to be on a church’s list and proceed to deal directly with businesses that offer wedding products and services. Christian businesses with wedding products and services could insist on their part that wedding planners be on a list provided by a church.
Christian businesses that formerly offered products and services for weddings can continue to offer products and services to the general public that are not wedding related. Wedding related products and services would be available only to churches or their list of planners and facilitators.
This closes the loop and preserves the sanctity of Christian marriage.
Jewish weddings in most cases already do essentially the same thing. They keep the loop closed to Jewish businesses.
**Do Our Christian Beliefs Have A Place In Our Public Lives?**
Yes!
God is the highest authority, to Whom ALL must bow. Even the United States of America ...
God made me, God owns me, I owe EVERYTHING to God.
If that doesn’t affect my “public life”, then I have rejected and spat upon God. My Faith and my allegiance to God MUST come before all else and inform everything that I do.
When the State (or anyone else) tries to place itself before God, it commits blasphemy and idolatry.
Really? It isn't obvious?
All of our beliefs have a part in our public lives. What we believe is who we are.
I am getting confused about why people want to make things that are extraordinarily simple into complex by adding a bunch of stuff that is irrelevant.
When you get off point you are conceding ground. When you concede ground you lose ground. When you lose ground you lose.
I have found that attrition rather than promotion has always worked for me. I live my life in a way that anyone who encounters me sees living example of God’s grace. (And no I do not do it perfectly. Some times I can be a real jerk.)
There was a movie ‘Ship of Fools’. A new one should be made, entitled ‘America, A Nation of Fools.
The country was founded by people who did not separate their religion from their public life. To even suppose that you might means their America is under attack.
I have heard several times, including by Governor Brewer, the remark that no one can show that Christian businesses are harmed by serving gay events. Which is to deliberately miss the point. There is a difference between offering a product or service that does not require you to take part in something you consider immoral, and offering a product or service that does require you to participate.
Serving a meal in your cafe to someone doesn’t require you to take part in his private immorality, if he behaves himself publicly. Catering an event that is itself immoral does require you to participate. Shooting a photo of someone on your premises again doesn’t require you to be complicit if he behaves himself. Photographing an event that you consider immoral does require you to participate.
Some Christians may draw the line differently than others, some may not object and some obviously do object. But your moral and religious life is yours, it is not to be dictated by anyone else. The founders knew this. Our current overlords are trying to overthrow them and define for us what is moral and what is not.
If this becomes law, that people are obliged to participate in immorality, then they will find other ways to avoid doing so. But the fact that they are forced and people are trying to force them with impunity means that they are no longer free men before the law.
You will notice that Christians built a country in which people would be respected who did not agree with us.
Anti-Christians are building a system that is totalitarian. It is in their spiritual genes. It is inevitable.
The wages of turning your back on the God of the Bible is slavery. An America even nominally under God was a free country becoming more free. An America that rejects God is headed for the cliff. The only question is how bad will it get before people get the message. This is like something out of the Old Testament and we are witnessing it.
We were established to be One Nation under God. As General George Washington included in General Orders issued in July,1776 and as President Lincoln included in his Gettysburg Address—and as President Ronald Reagan noted if we ever cease to be a nation under God we will be a nation gone under.Americans have chosen to allow the government usurp Religion and the Church.
Absolutely.
Jesus to His disciples, in Matthew 5:
14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
If we take lumps for acting on our faith, SO BE IT!!!!!
Anyone who insists that you violate your religeous beliefs for their benefit is an anti-religeous bigot. When they accuse you of discrimination, accuse them of religeous bigotry.
Anyone who insists you perform your labor for their benefit without your concurrence, and uses the power of the state to enforce their edicts, believes in slavery. Call them a slaver.
Take their money as a deposit, and return it the day before the event, telling them that you are too busy to do their job.