[ Back in 2009 I posted a link to Andrew Sullivan’s well-balanced reasoning why he left the political Right behind (Leaving the Right) ]
Recently, Andrew Sullivan wrote another well-balanced reasoning on why (or why not) should a baker be allowed to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple:
Let Him Have His Cake:
Mistake to force the baker:
- […] I think it was a prudential mistake to sue the baker. Live and let live would have been a far better response. The baker’s religious convictions are not trivial or obviously in bad faith […]
- […] That is particularly the case when much of the argument for marriage equality was that it would not force anyone outside that marriage to approve or disapprove of it. […]
- […] It always worries me when gays advocate taking freedom away from other people. It worries me as a matter of principle. […]
Mistake to allow the baker:
- […] I worry that a decision that endorses religious freedom could effectively nullify a large swathe of antidiscrimination legislation — and have a feeling that Scalia, for example, would have backed the gays in this case on those grounds alone. […]
- (paraphrasing John Corvino): […] in this particular case, the act of creation is so deeply entwined with hostility to an entire class of people that antidiscrimination laws overrule it. […]
- […] One final thought as a Christian. Sealing yourself off from those you consider sinners is, in my reading of the Gospels, the reverse of what Jesus taught. […]
[…] Somewhere, the fundamental Christian imperative to love others and be humble before them has been lost. […]