Free Exercise Issues to Think About

Suppose the law requires all businesses to serve all customers who are able to pay for the goods or services. Assume the law has no religious freedom exception? How should we handle these situations?

1. Should a Quaker landlord, who is a religious pacifist, be required to rent a building to a gun dealer? Or should religious liberty provide an exception to the law?

2. Should a landlord be required, over his sincere religious objections, to rent office space to the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan?

3. Should a Jewish baker be required to decorate a cake for the local chapter of the American Nazi party?

4. Should a Muslim photographer be required to photograph a bachelor party that includes women stripping for the entertainment of the groom-to-be and his friends?

5. Should a Christian building owner, who believes in God's love of animals, be required to rent a factory for a fur coat manufacturer? Or for a butcher shop or slaughterhouse?

6. Should a Catholic adoption agency, which believes in the Biblical ideal of marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman, be required to place children with same-sex married couples?

7. What about a conservative Christian photographer who declines to participate in same-sex weddings?

Sometimes it is best to put yourself in the shoes of the other guy and see how he or she may look at issues that seem clear to you.