i believe in a creator and i believe in the separation of church and state. I believe Christianity is supposed to be based on the teachings of christ and there was a situation where christs disciple peter had been confused about paying taxes. Matthew 17:27. Its an interesting story on many levels but the short take away is that jesus told peter to avoid offending go ahead and pay the tax. In another situation jesus said give to cesar what belongs to cesar and to god the things which are gods. In another situation he said if his kingdom was of this world then his followers would fight.
I believe there are more than enough examples like the ones i mentioned to demonstrate christs approach to matters of church and state and they appear to embrace a separation as opposed to unification.
as to the first example about the wedding cake. Supposedly we have a free market. Well, i dont suppose anyone really familiar with the us economy would say its very free when businesses are too big to fail etc......but for the sake of argument its a free market and in a free market people should be allowed to refuse service for any and all reasons (my opinion only). In a free market if one business was allowed to refuse service to gay ppl or anyone else it would be the free market which would punish said business by no longer spending money there, and with the internet the bad reputation would spread so fast its practically guaranteed there would be immediate repercussions. With the gov stepping in and managing what otherwise should be the consequence of market forces all it does is increase the size and involvement of gov in the private lives of free adults to willingly conduct commerce with each other or not and force people to comply under the threat of force or other unsavory condequences.
another perhaps unforseen consequence of forcing ppl to do business with those they otherwise would not is it encourages sneaky and perhaps dangerous behavior by those who resent having their hand forced to perform such services. As christians become more savvy and wise to the game being played i can imagine all kinds of scenarios where they comply with the requests for services but do a shoddy job. In retrospect if those bakers in oregon could have a redo they could have just as easily accepted the job and then just not shown up at all and claimed they were both desperately ill with the flu or some such thing and who would be able to prove otherwise?
The only cases where gov intervention is required and even demanded is in those cases where human rights are being violated such as slavery or equal access to goods and services necessary to life and maintenance of life related necessities like food, shelter, clothing, medical care, transportation, education and the like. There are hosts of other services, activities etc which are clearly not necessary for meeting the basic needs of life and those should, in my opinion, be left to market forces to deal with.
as to churches enjoying tax exempt status it has always bothered me. I have very religious grandparents who first taught me that they even claimed their tithes and offerings on tax returns, which they apparently are allowed to do. Even as a very naive and ignorant 15 year old i remember strongly resenting the fact that something which should be a very personal transaction between the believer and god, giving of ones money to support the ministry or other church related things, that one could get some of that money back in the form of a tax break. I felt that the gov should have nothing at all to do with those things and to this day believe churches should enjoy no special benefits from the state with regard to financial or tax matters.......the buildings should be treated like any other buildings and the gov should have nothing to do with believers money when used to support church activities I think its dangerous for churches to have ever askdd for or allowed those kinds of allowances to be made for them as it seems to set a precedent for gov involvement in church matters.
good topic and very relevant to the times were living in.