Discrimination, Diversity, Voices and Images From Beyond, Living Above Venus, and the Impeccable Bad Piper

This came through the feed late today:

“Without a robust religious exemption,” they wrote, “this expansion of hiring rights will come at an unreasonable cost to the common good, national unity and religious freedom.”

That’s the justification, in part, for a group of businesses (who claim to be religious) for asking that they be exempt from non-discrimination rules when it comes to those totally wrong, creepy, and detrimental GLBT “people.”

To me, that says “In order to be united, we must exclude this entire group of people. In order to be free, we must oppress these others who don’t fit our beliefs.”

This is a result, direct or in, of the Hobby Lobby decision from the Supreme Court yesterday. The one that people (who are happy with it) have been swearing up and down that it won’t lead to anything worse than some (skeevy whores) not getting their pass to free sex (“birth control”).

Well, there ya go. Not more than 48 hours later and this request has been made.

It makes me sick. It makes me disappointed in any genuine faith-based organization that would condone, let alone support, this kind of exclusion in this day and age. (And, yes, I am regularly disappointed in a number of faith-based organizations.)

The biggest problem with the Supreme Court decision is that it was based on other exemptions already on the books. I take issue with those, too.

There’s a difference between secular society and spiritual life. One is shared among people who don’t always agree on things. In order to be part of that secular world–especially as an incorporated business–you have to play by the same rules as everyone else. Exceptions to the rule of law should be few and far between and supported by a distinct need.

Thinking gay people are icky does not make eliminating them from your presence a need.

Opposing birth control is just fine. Don’t make use of it in your life. But how other people feel about that is out of your hands. Especially if you’re “just” in a titled position in a free-standing entity like a national chain of businesses. A secular entity. You want to be a faith-based organization? Fine, change your structure and all your other behavior to be one. Then you get to play by those rules and be as picky as you want.

This whole thing is an nasty mess waiting to explode.

And I don’t have a good, coherent solution to make it any better. Mainly because the existing laws are a mess. Partially because the way we’ve done business for more than a century is a bit of a mess.

Anyway… here’s the rest of the feed…