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Tuesday, 6 December 2022

re: "When Gay Rights Clash With Religious Freedom"

re: "When Gay Rights Clash With Religious Freedom" (The New York Times, December 4, 2022)

It is honest of the author to admit that homophobia is written into her religion's sacred text, as are endorsements of the institution of slavery (even more in the New than the Old Testament: Ephs. 6:5, Titus 2:9, etc), which was also common when old men steeped in the patriarchy of desert tribes were busily composing those sacred scriptures to freeze desiccate their societies and every bad moral value held. 

The question then is, perhaps, how much value must the rest of us give to beliefs that, whilst sincerely held by millions for many generations, lack any sound moral foundation save the accident of having been written into someone's sacred text? Must every belief that has a scriptural foundation, say in Mein Kampf, and that today has sincere believers require that we respect their right to conform to their doubtless sincerely held belief? 

Can the law compel a racist, say one who holds that view for what they, notwithstanding Ms. Warren's rejection of it as bad theology, hold to be a theological command from their god written into the text of the Bible? Are only majority religious interpretations of a set of approved scripture to be allowed force in determining which religious exemptions are to be granted from complying with the secular law of the land? 

That said, I also see the attempted wisdom of Ms. Warren's suggested solution to the difficulty. We do not, surely, want to be in the habit of using the law as a weapon to compel compliance to our own values. 

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/opinion/303-creative-supreme-court.html#commentsContainer&permid=121836678:121836678

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