Rod Dreher defines it as :
The Law Of Merited Impossibility is an epistemological
construct governing the paradoxical way overclass opinion makers frame
the discourse about the clash between religious liberty and gay civil
rights. It is best summed up by the phrase, “It’s a complete absurdity
to believe that Christians will suffer a single thing from the expansion
of gay rights, and boy, do they deserve what they’re going to get.”
Rod talks about this in context perhaps one of the best religious liberty columns of the week written by Ben Domenech.
See Rod's post Frightening The Horses
Of course those that talk about gay marriage and religious liberty see this all the time. Its often employed in the same paragraph by the same person. It also sets up at times some impossible condition. You better agree to gay marriage now or when its forced upon you there will be hell to pay. Now this of course disrgards that many Christians were against making gay sex acts illegal , were for unjust laws that discriminated and many were very open to Civil Unions. The fact is there will always be a " they " that cannot be eliminated as to opponents of gay marriage.
Recently I have been discussing the need for some rather " in my view " limited religious liberty protections for people of Faith that oppose gay marriage.
That is for the countless numbers of objectors of gay marriage whose work at times interaacts with marriage ceremonies. That is Photo folks, florists, bakers that make wedding cake makers , etc etc. The fact there can be any dissent will not be tolerated it seems . Though these people might have gay employees and serve happily same sex singles and couples outside the marriage ceremony that shall not be enough..
All dissent must be abolished or as they put it discrimination.
Hopefully though as we move more to the religious liberty questions there might be some victories in this regard. At he very least the Libertarians that have been in the forefront of opposing DOMA and Prop 8 and similar folks are much more likely to too see not only the religious first amendment concerns but those related to Speech and association as to the First Amendment
Thursday, June 27, 2013
The Law Of Merited Impossibility , Gay Marriage , And Religious Liberty
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1 comment:
Dissent all you want to.
But when you enter the marketplace, you have to follow the rules of the marketplace. The rule COULD be that you have to serve all comers, period. AKA, the common carrier doctrine, and it applies to railroads, bus companies, hotels and inns, and so on. Another rule, the more widespread one, is that you can't refuse service based on certain categories. And being gay is being added to the list (race, religion, ethnicity, gender, etc). You make wedding cakes? Then make them for gays too, or get out of the business. And, no, the fact that you will make a gay birthday cake does not change anything.
Dissent is another matter. Dissent all you want, as I say. Work to change the law. Write, vote, etc. But don't expect that there will be no pushback there either. Dissent is free speech, and the gov't can't punish you for it. But folks have their rights too, and can boycott you, and so on.
What you don't have is (A) the right to convert your dissent into discriminatory conduct contrary to law and (B) the right to express your views completely free of consequences, particularly those that involve other folks' rights.
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