Comments on: Should Christian photographers take gay photos?

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 02:41:37 +0000

Do you truly believe the fundamental laws that have governed most of the developed world for tens of centuries, and which these nations have been founded on came simply from “good moral ethics” and “human decency”? Without the presence of God you will see complete moral and cultural decay (ie: present day). John 3:16′s always been a popular one, but check out John 3:19-20… Without the light there can be only darkness.

By: Laurance

Laurance — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:56:37 +0000

Greg gets right to the point. Yes. It’s in the same category as refusing to serve someone at a lunch counter. I agree here.

That said, I do think there are some businesses that can legitimately limit their services to certain groups. The aforementioned Curves is for women specifically. I don’t think this is a wrong thing, since there are many gyms where men can go. The owner of Curves did have a gym specifically for women which nevertheless allowed men to join. It went belly up, didn’t work out. There are plenty of gyms that are co-ed and which succeed. But something that is specifically for women is another matter.

But a photographer is something else. The question is, as I said before, what a good response would be to this.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:13:10 +0000

How is this any different than refusing to serve someone at a lunch counter?

By: Laurance

Laurance — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:42:35 +0000

I agree with you, Minion, that the public sphere should be secular, secular, secular, and that religion belongs at home and at church.

Now where and how do we draw the line? I think it can be a bit fuzzy. I go to Curves (is there Curves in Canada?) which is owned by a born-again christian. I get that some Curves franchises are more blatantly religious than others. Ours is not blatant, but I can still see the christian influence.

On the one hand they do not discriminate against me. OTOH, I am in the closet. I don’t know what would happen if I were out. I don’t know that they would show me the door, but I might find that the place is no longer particularly friendly and supportive. I don’t know, and I’m not ready to try and find out.

Nor have I any idea of their hiring practices. I get the Chick-fil-A does have religious requirements, such that if you aren’t a christian, you have to behave like a christian nevertheless and accept and adopt christian practices.

If I had a business I’d assume that I’m expected to serve all my customers. I would assume that I’d be expected to hire qualified people even if they were churchgoers.

As for our Curves franchise, most of the songs are secular. From time to time they play christian songs to work out to, but there aren’t very many. I think they have the right to do so. There used to be a wonderful tea shop-bookstore-cafe-meeting place run by a Buddhist woman and her east Indian husband from Calcutta who was an atheist from a Hindu culture. There was Indian music playing much of the time, and many of the books were Buddhist books. But christians were as welcome there as anyone else. (And I as an atheist felt very much at home.)

So I see I haven’t given a strong opinion on the photographers. I don’t know if suing them is appropriate here, or if it would be enough for them to get a reputation as homophobes, so that many people would go elsewhere.