The state of Arizona might pass a bill that would allow businesses to turn down homosexuals from shopping or purchasing at their stores.
Bill SB 1062 uses the constitutional right to religious freedom and expression to defend its stand on not doing business with homosexuals. The bill breezed through the Arizona House of Representatives and is now sitting on the Arizona governors’ desk. Should the governor sign the bill into law, gays could potentially be turned away from buying milk, bread, soap and even Nutella from their local grocery stores. LGBT’s of all shapes and sizes could be turned down at the gas pump or even at a pharmacy due to their sexual inclination.
I think we’ve gone too far. Denying rights to homosexuals is not the answer.
I can certainly understand an aversion to homosexuals getting married. Disagreeing with homosexuals living in sin and having sex has very strong grounds in Scripture. We are called to keep our brothers and sisters in check with their sins, even if they are gay. But to deny them the right to buy a sweater because it’s cold isn’t an accountability check up, but an unfair judgment. And to me, judging sounds like the opposite of what we’re called to do.
I’m no business major, but I can see how denying business to a rather loud minority of people can be detrimental to maintaining a stable economy. From a purely economic standpoint, any state that signs such a bill into law is going to have quite the loss of income. Because not only homosexuals, but liberals in general will flee the state in order to find freedom to do business. And, along with the liberals, many tourists will refuse to visit, and those beautiful desert sunsets will go unseen by people who could have truly been blessed by them.
A certain amount of fair play dictates that the next logical step will be to deny anyone who is lustful, greedy, lazy, arrogant or even a witch from buying Ibuprofen at his or her local pharmacy. And any woman in a hijab, the headdress Islamic women wear, could be denied the right to buy bread or water.
Using a law to deny any customer service based on religious beliefs is going to give way to a lot more strife than peace. Can you imagine all the misunderstandings? I don’t think we serve a God that wants to do war with those He loves.
People who wanted to be free from discrimination and persecution founded the United States of America. This country has seen its ups and downs with regard to segregation, but after 60 plus years of abolishing Jim Crow laws, the country has no reason to go back to anything similar. If anything, Christians need to be keeping homosexuals and heterosexuals alike accountable for their sins. Denying homosexuals the right to buy ice cream is not the direction this country, or this religion, needs to follow. Pray for Arizona.