All this stuff about “religious freedom” laws is quite brilliant when you think about it. You say you don’t want to bake a cake for a gay wedding? You don’t want to sell birth control to a woman? You don’t want to rent to Jews? No problem! All you have to do is say, “I’m sorry, but it’s against my religion,” and voilà, you’re off the hook!
Yessir, if you want to declare your sovereign self exempt from any and all anti-discrimination laws, all you have to do is say, “I’m sorry, but it’s against my religion.” Hell. you probably don’t even have to say, “I’m sorry, but . . . .”
When these laws become the law of the land throughout the land, how will it work? Will the religious freedom exemption be automatic and absolute, or will those who claim it have to provide a sound theological rationale?
Suppose a Muslim person walks into a Domino’s and orders a pizza. And suppose the guy behind the counter says his deeply held religious convictions forbid him from making pizza for Muslims. And suppose the Muslim person asks him to declare the basis for such a conclusion. Will the guy behind the counter be required to respond, or will he just be able to say screw you?
But suppose the guy behind the counter does unearth a nugget of scripture that affirms his stance. And suppose the Muslim person challenges the interpretation, or puts forth a contradictory nugget from the same scripture declaring that, as God’s children, we’re all obligated to make pizza for each other. Who wins? Will there be divinity police, with doctorates in theology, walking the beat? Go out and flag one down and bring them in to settle the dispute?
Because I ride around in a wheelchair, I’ve been refused service a lot. There once was a day, not long ago, when I couldn’t access any public transit buses. And once I ordered a beer in a bar and the bartender wouldn’t give me one. “What if something happened to you?” she said. She would only serve me a soft drink, she said, or something non-alcoholic.
This was before there was an Americans With Disabilities Act, which prohibits public and private entities from discriminating against qualified disabled individuals. According to the Disabilities Act, I would indeed have been qualified to receive that beer because I was 1) over 21 and 2) sober. Those are the only qualifications you need.
So if that bartender denied me service today, I could sue her good! But maybe someday soon the Americans With Disabilities Act won’t matter, and if she doesn’t want to serve me, she’ll just have to say, “I’m sorry, but giving beer to a guy in a wheelchair is against my religion.”
That’ll be a new one on me. I’ve been denied access to a lot of things (like beer) and I’ve heard a million excuses to justify it, but no one has ever blamed it on God. But I’m sure anyone who’s determined enough to find a biblical basis for turning me away will find one. That’s how the Bible works.
Mike Ervin is a writer and disability rights activist living in Chicago. He blogs at Smart Ass Cripple, “expressing pain through sarcasm since 2010.”