I appreciate your consistency – and your acknowledgement that the logic underlying the Arizona legislation would enable a return to racial discrimination and segregation (at least when motivated by religious beliefs).
On Feb 26, 2014, at 3:40 PM, Sisk, Gregory C. <gcs...@stthomas.edu<mailto:gcs...@stthomas.edu>> wrote: Yes, I do support religious liberty claims for religious minorities, when a substantial burden on exercise of faith is shown and a compelling government interest is missing. I do not limit my support for religious liberty to those exercises of religion that correspond to my own views, for that is not freedom at all. I’ve consistently defended claims by multiple religious minorities, from Muslims to American Indian groups and on to Orthodox Jews, as well as evangelical Christians and Catholics. Nor is my plea to accommodate the small business owner limited to a particular type of objection. An events photographer should be free, as a matter of both free exercise of religion and freedom of speech, to decline to photograph events that communicate a message with which she disagrees, whether that be a military deployment send-off event (because she is a pacifist) or a same-sex marriage ceremony (because she adheres to traditional religious perspectives on sexual morality) or, for that matter, a Catholic First Communion (because she regards the Catholic Church as oppressive). Gregory Sisk Laghi Distinguished Chair in Law University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota) MSL 400, 1000 LaSalle Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55403-2005 651-962-4923 gcs...@stthomas.edu<mailto:gcs...@stthomas.edu> http://personal.stthomas.edu/GCSISK/sisk.html<http://personal2.stthomas.edu/GCSISK/sisk.html> Publications: http://ssrn.com/author=44545 From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu<mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu> [mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Greg Lipper Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 2:30 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Re: Statistics on believers and same-sex marriage Replace “same-sex marriage” with “interracial marriage” and I can’t imagine you’d be making the same arguments – or suggest that business-owning opponents of interracial marriage were being “suffocated by an orthodox majority that is impatient or disdainful of accommodation.” On Feb 26, 2014, at 3:24 PM, Sisk, Gregory C. <gcs...@stthomas.edu<mailto:gcs...@stthomas.edu>> wrote: Don’t the statistics that Marci cites make the argument for robust religious freedom protection more rather than less compelling for those now or future religious minorities who do not wish to be forced to participate in or contribute business services to same-sex marriage ceremonies? Haven’t we transgressed rather far on to both freedom of religion and freedom of speech if the majority’s anti-discrimination laws can be used to require a person in the minority, at the price of losing a business license and surrendering her livelihood, to participate in a ceremony that offends his or her religious views? The events photographer acts not a journalist but a member of the team and thus must participate in a ceremony, whether it be a wedding, military banquet, or religious occasion. The baker who is asked not merely to sell a generic cake but to create a message by designing a special cake is necessarily becoming a part of the program and being asked to communicate a message. The proprietor of a bed-and-breakfast who is asked to dedicate a portion of her property to host a ceremony or program of any kind, whether a same-sex marriage or a religious ordination ceremony or a bachelor party, is being asked to join in the celebration and cannot holds it at arm’s length. Those whose religious views comfortably track the majority opinions on matters need not fear oppression, either intentionally or inadvertently. It was not surprising, for example, in my empirical studies of religious liberty cases that Episcopalians bring fewer claims for accommodation than Muslims. The primary purpose of religious liberty is to protect the religious minority from being intentionally suppressed by a hostile majority or inadvertently suffocated by an orthodox majority that is impatient or disdainful of accommodation and leaves no meaningful room for alternative views or lifestyles. We should expect better of a society that calls itself free or that claims to genuinely value diversity. Gregory Sisk Laghi Distinguished Chair in Law University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota) MSL 400, 1000 LaSalle Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55403-2005 651-962-4923 gcs...@stthomas.edu<mailto:gcs...@stthomas.edu> http://personal.stthomas.edu/GCSISK/sisk.html<http://personal2.stthomas.edu/GCSISK/sisk.html> Publications: http://ssrn.com/author=44545 From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu<mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu> [mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of hamilto...@aol.com<mailto:hamilto...@aol.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 1:52 PM To: religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu<mailto:religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu> Subject: Statistics on believers and same-sex marriage I thought list participants would find the statistics below interesting. This is what I meant when I said that opposition to same-sex marriage among believers is declining. It is even more stark when one asks only the younger generation. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/millennials-gay-unaffiliated-church-religion_n_4856094.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000055 . <~WRD000.jpg> _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu<mailto:Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu<mailto:Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
