Are Gay-Rights Laws Trampling on Freedom of Religion?

[DC Al Fine]

This article seems to be all about the New Mexico photographer example where the court ruled had to photograph a gay wedding (a result with which I disagree because that does go too far in intruding on private religious beliefs). Hopefully SCOTUS in due course will make clear that beyond selling stuff over the counter, who is not obligated to get enmeshed in a gay wedding ceremony vis a vis having to offer one's personal services at the affair itself. Muon2 and I spent some time chatting about this example, when he was faced with a potential vote on SSM in Illinois (before it all went away).

This brings up a larger debate about how far religious freedom extends. Does it merely apply to specifically religious practices or does it extend to living one's life according to one's conscience?

I believe religious freedom should extend beyond mere freedom of worship. Limiting freedom of religion to worship renders the faith moot. Faith without works is dead

This is the problem with the New Mexico photographer case. The state is forcing someone to go against their deeply held convictions. This is no different than telling a Catholic doctor to perform an abortion or a Quaker to go to war.

[DC Al Fine]

This article seems to be all about the New Mexico photographer example where the court ruled had to photograph a gay wedding (a result with which I disagree because that does go too far in intruding on private religious beliefs). Hopefully SCOTUS in due course will make clear that beyond selling stuff over the counter, who is not obligated to get enmeshed in a gay wedding ceremony vis a vis having to offer one's personal services at the affair itself. Muon2 and I spent some time chatting about this example, when he was faced with a potential vote on SSM in Illinois (before it all went away).

Such would set a precedent for refusing to serve an interfaith or interracial marriage.

So far as I know, Westboro Baptist Church, the infamous gay-baiters who use the Bible as a pretext for opposing homosexuality in any form, has not had its capacity to condemn homosexuality curtailed.

Indeed.

I have no problem with a church refusing to marry a gay couple for religious reasons.  But as a business owner, you do not have the right to deny someone a service on the basis of their sexuality.

This is no different than refusing to seat blacks at your lunch counter, or muslim cab drivers in Minneapolis refusing to transport customers who have alcohol in their luggage.

The problem is with a wedding photographer, it's much more ambiguous than just being a business owner. The photographer for lack of a better phrase is aiding and abetting a gay marriage. There's a huge difference between forcing someone to serve/sell to someone they find morally repugnant and making them help with the action they find so wrong.

To use your Muslim example, the photography case is more akin to forcing a Muslim farmer to sell grain to a brewery than making him drive someone with a six-pack.