Establishment Clause

Eight days ago, John Ellis Bush evidently tried to thread the needle (video below), a needle he cannot thread, nor should be able to. The Huffington Post reported

Likely Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said that Christian business owners should not have to provide services for gay weddings if it goes against their religious beliefs.

“Yes, absolutely, if it’s based on a religious belief,” he said when asked by the Christian Broadcasting Network in an interview Saturday if businesses should be able to decline services to same-sex weddings.

The former Florida governor justified his position by claiming that not providing a service does not count as discrimination if business owners feel that it violates their religious rights.

“A big country, a tolerant country, ought to be able to figure out the difference between discriminating someone because of their sexual orientation and not forcing someone to participate in a wedding that they find goes against their moral beliefs,” he said. “This should not be that complicated. Gosh, it is right now.”







Gosh, a tolerant county ought to be able to say your rights should not be curtailed by an act of God- such as forming some human beings as heterosexual and some as homosexual.; stated another way, characteristics conferred upon individuals by nature, not nurture.

It is passing strange that a person who says it "should not be that complicated" would be the same person who makes a distinction between discrimination because of sexual orientation and "not forcing someone to participate in a wedding that they find goes against their moral beliefs."  Gosh, why does he believe a business owner citing religion refuses to provide service if not because of the customers' sexual orientation?

He or she claims a religious conflict and then refuses service to a gay person or persons. It really is that simple, notwithstanding the ex-governor's effort to make it more as complicated as he claims it is.  If John Ellis Bush believed service may be refused for any reason, it really would be simple. But he instead believes everything is o.k. if the eight words "I do it because of my religious faith" can be uttered, which would offer government's support for religion over non-religion.

John Ellis Bush (in regard to same-sex marriage) stated at the same time "I'm not a lawyer." Apparently not, but he can be informed that his reasoning boils down to three words: "establishment of religion."





And in recognition of this holiday, the late Waylon Jennings:

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