Exemptions

You hear a lot now a days that there should be religious exemptions from certain laws. In Connecticut there is a religious exemption from the anti-discrimination statutes; religious institutions are exempt from the anti-discrimination laws. For example a church can refuse to have women priests and not violate anti-discrimination the statues. However, they are exempt only for places of worship and places that are exclusively for their parishioner, a hospital is not exempt because it serves the public and it also receives public funding.

When we were trying to pass the gender inclusive anti-discrimination law here in Connecticut there was pressure to exempt the law for anyone based on religious beliefs, stop for a minute and think what that would mean. It would mean that a person or business could refuse to serve a trans-person or a gay or lesbian couple. It would mean that if trans-person were in an accident and rushed to an emergency room that a doctor could legally refuse to treat the person. It would mean that a town clerk could refuse to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.

Under Connecticut law this is allowed (As it should be)…

Mississippi Church Refuses to Marry Black Couple
ABC News
By ALON HARISH
Jul 28, 2012
They had booked their wedding far in advance. The invitations had been sent, the programs printed. But one day before Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson were to be married at the Mississippi church they frequented, they said a pastor told them they would have to find another venue -- because they were black.

There has never been a black wedding at the First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs, Miss., since its founding in 1883. According to Pastor Stan Weatherford, some church members objected so strongly to breaking that precedent, they threatened to oust him from his pastorship.

Because it is a church they would be allowed to discriminate against a person’s race. However, this also would be allowed because of the religious exemption…

Whites-only Christian gathering riles some Alabama neighbors
MSNBC
By Kari Huus
July 5, 2012

three-day whites-only religious conference — which will conclude with a flaming cross — in Lamar County, Alabama, has some residents upset at the racist implications while the minister complains that his freedom of speech is being violated.

Yes, we believe that the Europeans and their descendants are the chosen people of God," according to the website for Christian Identity Ministries, which is holding the event with Church of God’s Chosen. "We believe this, not because we think that the white race is superior, but because there is overwhelming proof in support of this belief. We do not back down from this belief, because we are certain."

The church is a white supremacist church and under the religious exemption they are also allowed to discriminate, but consider what would have happened if the amendment to allow individual religious exemptions passed. One of their parishioners could legally discriminate against non-whites; they could refuse to serve blacks in restaurants all they would have to do is claim a religious exemption (It would still be against federal law, but Republicans in Congress have also proposed exemptions based on religious beliefs.). If the amendment passed, a person could refuse to serve a Jew or Muslim. That would have been unintended consequences of the effort to block LGBT civil rights; it would have opened up a floor of religious exemptions just to stop LGBT people for their civil rights.

Update 9:00am
On my Facebook page a friend pointed something out me that I want to make clear...

So does that mean it is "Christian" to be a bigot? A racist? A homophobe?

No, this does not mean that it is "Christian" to be a bigot, it means that a bigot can be Christian or any other religion or even a atheist.

What I am trying to say is that we have to be very careful when we grant exemptions for religious beliefs because there are many other religions that have various beliefs. When most of us think of religion we are thinking of the mainstream religions, but there are many other religions that have a wide variety of beliefs and when we exempt one religion we exempt all religions.