I am amazed every day by how many people don’t know what discrimination is.  Oh, they think they know but they really have no clue.  As time goes on our nation seems to be sliding down a slope of ignorance that seems to have no bottom and its getting steeper every day.  Now, admittedly, I’m drawing this conclusion from politicians, reporters, and friends on Facebook so that may not be the best pool to choose from, but it is what it is.

One of the most headed issues is the war against the LBGT segment of our populous.  From gay marriages to bakers not wanting to bake a “gay” cake.  This, for some reason, is a very polarizing issue.  On one side you have the people who want equal rights for everyone and on the other you have people wanting everyone to follow what they perceive to be their own Christian rights.  Christians point towards the Bible as to why gays should have no rights.  They point to a fact that being gay is a sin and they should not have to associate with anyone that sins.  Now they are correct that the Bible talks about homosexuality, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman” Leviticus 18:22.  But what they fail to realize through there selective reading of the text is that good ole Leviticus is full of sins that they have no trouble seeing past.  I’ve yet to hear a story about a baker refusing, because of religious beliefs, to make a cake for a tattooed person, or a person wearing clothing woven of two kinds of material, or a man that had cut the hair at the sides of his head or clipped off the edges of his beard.  I’ve also yet to see to many bakers refusing to work on the Sabbath.

Now a baker refuses to make a wedding cake for a “gay” wedding by claiming it was against their religious beliefs and doesn’t feel that they are discriminating at all.  This is where I think everyone should take that time to learn what discrimination really is.  Let’s look at a couple of examples: A bakery has four different customers wanting to purchase a wedding cake.  The customers are: a heterosexual couple, a bi-racial couple, a homosexual couple, and a lady wanting to get a wedding cake so her daughter could have a wedding for two of her stuffed animals.  The baker decides that three of the four would get cakes because they all fall within his religious beliefs (the stuffed animal one is a little strange but his preacher has never mentioned that being a sin so he figured it was ok) but the homosexual wouldn’t get a cake because homosexuality is against his religion.  The baker feels he is within his rights to deny service to anyone he chooses so he feels he has not discriminated against anyone.

Meanwhile at another bakery a baker receives a call to make a cake with the cartoon character of Mohamed on the cake.  The baker refuses and states I don’t make those kinds of cakes.  The baker feels that they have not discriminated against anyone.

So which one is discrimination and which one is not?  If you said the second or both are discrimination you are in need of more education on the subject.  The first one is the only one that is discrimination.  Discrimination is defined as a treatment or consideration based on class or category, such as race or gender, rather than individual merit.  So when you refuse to do something because of the group that the person belongs to that is discrimination.  If someone comes into your bakery without a shirt on you can tell them to leave.  Also, if you are asked to make something you normally wouldn’t make and you refuse that is not discrimination.

It also needs to be said that forcing a baker to make a wedding cake for a “gay” marriage would not lead to a slippery slope of forcing business to do things against their will.  I have a friend that is a website developer tell me that if his religious rights aren’t protected then someone could force him to make a website.  I tried explaining to him that the government will not force a business to do something it would not normally do.  If you don’t build porn websites you will not be required to build one.  If you do build porn websites but refuse to build one for someone because of a class or group that they are in then you will have discriminated.  I’m still not sure if he gets it or not.

So to sum it up.  If the only people you will not make a wedding dress for is a gay couple then you are discriminating.  If you are a Christian and can’t get everyone to believe what you believe and can’t have group led prayer at school you have not been discriminated against.  That would only be discrimination if Christian prayer was the only prayer not allowed.

I hope this clarifies the situation.  If not then more education is needed.  Please seek it out if you need it.

Those pesky facts.