Gay Rights vs Religious Rights

As I write, we are hours away from SCOTUS reviewing a case to determine whether a baker can refuse to serve gays based on the baker's religious beliefs. And I can say with absolute conviction that IF the justices are honest brokers and protectors of the Constitution, they MUST find in favor of the baker (though I seriously doubt if the liberals on the court would agree).
Here it is in a nutshell...

The right to not be discriminated against is a right provided by the laws of Man. But according to the Constitution, the Right to free exercise of religion is a GOD-given right. And God's law supercedes Man's law, every time. Furthermore, the government has no right under the Constitution to dictate to a privately owned business who it can and cannot do business with. Think about this - if a government has the power to tell you who you can do business with, then they also have the power to tell you who you cannot do business with!

The First Amendment is very clear - every person has an inalienable right to the free EXERCISE of religion. Not just the freedom to believe, but the freedom to exercise it in every aspect of your life. Ergo, if your religion says homosexuality is a sin, then that is a tenet of that religion, and the follower must live accordingly. And if, as is the case in Christianity, the religion declares that you are just as guilty of the sin as is the actual sinner if you do anything to condone it OR if you fail to oppose it, then the free exercise of that religion would require the baker to refuse to bake a cake for gays if it is specific to them.

In short, no government has any right, legal or moral, to force someone to violate their religious beliefs. In this case, the man-made right of gays cannot supercede the God-given right of the business owner.

It should be noted that the baker in question is not refusing to sell a cake to gays, or refusing to do business with them - they are still free to buy any other cake in the shop and decorate it themselves. He is only refusing to CREATE a SPECIAL cake for a gay marriage - something he cannot support, and cannot be forced to support by government decree without violating the bakers First Amendment right.

Even without the First Amendment, the first official document that formed our Republic, the Declaration of Independence, makes it clearer still. It states, "...that [we] are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." In other words, the right to choose our own path - a path that makes us happy - is a God-given right that no man or government has any right to infringe.

Personally, I couldn't care less if gays marry, or if a man wants to become a woman. And my Bible says homosexuality is an "abomination", not a sin. And the definition of "abomination" is simply that it is not normal or natural, just as a two-headed calf is an abomination. But that calf has not sinned.

But I DO care when anyone uses the power of the government to force others to join them in their choices, thereby violating the rights of others. Certainly, gays have the same rights as the rest of us, but no one has a right to violate the rights of others.

And that is why the Supreme Court of the United States should clearly find in favor of the baker - that the baker cannot refuse to do business with anyone based on sexual orientation, but shall not be required to violate their religious beliefs by creating a special piece specific to them. There are other bakes, some without such religious convictions.

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