Thursday, April 09, 2015

Liberal analogies


I'm going to comment on two leftwing cartoons about the religious liberty debate. Both of these are supposed to be devastating analogies which leave Christians stumped. "Secular progresses" pride themselves on their superior reasoning ability–in contrast to knuckle-dragging Christians. So it's always revealing to witness the actual quality of their arguments:

If selling a gay couple a wedding cake means a "christian" baker participated in their marriage, does selling a gun to a murderer mean a "christian" gun store owner participated in the murder?

i) Why put Christian in scare quotes? Does the cartoonist imagine that opposition to queer marriage is unchristian? 

ii) Guns can be used to save lives as well as take lives. Guns are defensive as well as offensive weapons. Hence, there's nothing ipso facto wrong about selling guns. Wedding cakes don't save lives. 

iii) Apropos (ii), a gun shop doesn't normally know in advance how a gun will be used. 

iv) There are, however, situations in which the seller would be complicit in murder. Take an arms-dealer who sells guns to a drug cartel. 

v) The right to bear arms is Constitutionally protected, whereas queer marriage is not. 

vi) There are no "gay couples." Homosexuals–especially homosexual men–don't pair off. Even their marriages are open marriages. "Gay couple" is fictitious propaganda. 

If I discriminate against or criticize you, it's called "Religious Freedom"
If you return the favor, it's called "Persecution"

i) Free speech, freedom of association, and the free exercise of religion are Constitutionally protected. By contrast, sodomy was a criminal offense at common law and was forbidden by the laws of the original 13 States when they ratified the Bill of Rights. 

ii) There's an elementary difference between government punishing Christian businesses (e.g. fines, confiscation of property) and private citizens who boycott a business they disapprove of. There's a basic difference between government persecution and customers who choose where to take their business.

iii) Apropos (ii), there's an elementary difference between "criticism" or "discrimination" and gov't prosecuting Christian businessmen when they exercise their Constitutional freedom of association and free exercise of religion.  

iv) Apropos (iii), refusing to sell a wedding cake damages no one. Putting a Christian baker out of business destroys their livelihood. 

v) The homosexual lobby does not allow mutual criticism. Criticism of homosexuality is classified as hate speech. It's not a two-way street.

vi) Keep in mind, too, that the cartoon is comparing the incomparable. Homosexuality is a moral perversion. For instance, the liberal media went to great lengths to expose sexual abuse in the church of Rome, yet that's an essentially homosexual scandal. 

1 comment:

  1. If you thought those were brilliant, wait until you see this:

    http://www.sadanduseless.com/2015/04/gay-marriage/

    Try reading the whole thing without punching your monitor.

    Also, lots of people have probably already seen these but - Baker allowed by the gov't to refuse baking a cake with Bible verses:

    http://christiannews.net/2015/04/05/commission-rules-in-favor-of-baker-who-refused-to-decorate-bibles-cakes-against-homosexuality/

    Muslim bakers refuse to bake cakes for same-sex weddings and receive no death threats, boycotts, or government intervention:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgWIhYAtan4&feature=youtu.be

    ReplyDelete