{"id":863,"date":"2014-02-25T05:53:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T05:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/sincerely-held-religious-beliefs-and-the-fraying-of-america.html"},"modified":"2014-02-25T05:53:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T05:53:00","slug":"sincerely-held-religious-beliefs-and-the-fraying-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/sincerely-held-religious-beliefs-and-the-fraying-of-america.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs’ and the Fraying of America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Several states have recently introduced bills that would allow people to withhold services to their fellow Americans if they base their decision on \u201csincerely held religious beliefs.\u201d In Arizona, one of these bills has made it all the way to Gov. Jan Brewer\u2019s desk, and she is currently deciding whether or not to sign the bill into law.<\/span><\/div>\n
These bills are deemed necessary by religious conservatives on account of several cases where\u00a0Christian business owners refused to offer services to LGBT people<\/a>, claiming that serving them would violate their own religious convictions about homosexuality and same-sex relationships. In one of the most celebrated examples, a case made it all the way to the\u00a0Supreme Court of New Mexico<\/a>, where it was ruled that a Christian photographer did not have the right to refuse to take photographs of a same-sex couple\u2019s commitment ceremony based on her religious beliefs.<\/span><\/div>\n
Giving a special pass that allows an individual with \u201csincerely held religious beliefs\u201d to chose not to do business is fraught with problems.<\/span><\/div>\n
For instance, who is to decide what is sincere? Are the religious beliefs sincere if a cake seller will sell a cake to two divorced individuals for their second marriage but not to a same-sex couple for their first? Or does this cafeteria-style approach to Christianity expose a lack of sincerity of religious belief? This raises the question of who will determine the sincerity of a belief. The courts? If so, which religious leaders will advise the courts on that question, as it is clear that religious leaders increasingly disagree on the question of gay marriage and the full dignity of LGBT people?<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several states have recently introduced bills that would allow people to withhold services to their fellow Americans if they base their decision on \u201csincerely held religious beliefs.\u201d In Arizona, one of these bills has made it all the way to Gov. Jan Brewer\u2019s desk, and she is currently deciding whether or not to sign the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n'Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs' and the Fraying of America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Several states have recently introduced bills that would allow people to withhold services to their fellow Americans if they base their decision on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/sincerely-held-religious-beliefs-and-the-fraying-of-america.html\" \/>\n<meta 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