tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808999261727661581.post1213265439291959776..comments2023-07-20T01:00:45.892-07:00Comments on Proposition 8 and the Right to Marry: Part IV in Professor John Culhane's series on marriage equality & religious liberty: Other Contexts, The End of Religious Marriage(?), Final ThoughtsMichael Ginsborghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05142968737430032147noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3808999261727661581.post-62321653301609184872009-08-06T12:28:30.885-07:002009-08-06T12:28:30.885-07:00(and why should benefits be tied to marriage in th...<i>(and why should benefits be tied to marriage in the first place, I often wonder?)</i><br /><br />As my people say, but they are, Blanche, but they are.<br /><br />It's very disheartening to continue to read such superficial "analysis" of this issue. Florists... it's not about freakin' florists. It's about access to, and participation in, the countless faith-based and faith-affiliated service agencies that exist in this country and which receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public contracts to provide social services. <br /><br />And more important than that, it is about a "religious accommodation" which finds its expression on one and only one form: discrimination against gay people. I don't hear about Catholic Charities wanting the right to refuse to recognize the divorce of an employee when providing health care coverage, for example. We no longer countenance discrimination by these organizations against people of other faiths or of no faith or against people of the faith in question who fail to meet the requirements of that faith.<br /><br />There are existing rules that cover these issues and have successfully dealt with much more theological vexing issues than homosexuality over the decades. Any new "exemptions" are nothing but the institutionalization of anti-gay bigotry.BobNnoreply@blogger.com