Aaron and Melissa Klein, the Christian owners of a bakery in Oregon, continue to stand firm in their position on violation of their First Amendment right when they were fined $135,000 for declining to make a cake for same-sex wedding ceremony in 2013.
The bakery owners paid the fine last year in December and also appealed in the Oregon Court of Appeals in April claiming violation of their religious freedom by government which imposed hefty fines to punish their alleged motive of discrimination against the same-sex couple, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer.
The state lawyers filed a brief justifying the charges against the Kleins, to which the bakery couple replied this month. State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Solicitor General Benjamin Gutman said that the fines were for discriminatory conduct and not against the couple's religious beliefs, and that the colossal amount of fine was appropriate because it had caused the Cryers deep emotional distress.
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He then added that the government did not want to close down businesses but wanted to rehabilitate them.
"For those who do violate the law, we want them to learn from that experience and have a good, successful business in Oregon," he had said.
The Kleins' brief says that Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian levied the fines on them without due process, and violated their religious freedom right. They maintain that the government cannot compel artists to devote their art to causes which violate their conscience.
The couple had served the women before, but they could not participate in the event which they said violated their deeply-held religious convictions.
"It wasn't them as a couple. We served them in the past. It had to do with their event. We just couldn't partake in that particular event," Melissa told The Daily Signal last
On a Sunday morning, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones attended church at St. George’s Church. Jones was asked by one of the trustees to not kneel during prayer, but Jones asked to wait until the prayer was over. But Jones was not given the chance to finish the prayer, and soon another man came to remove him from the church. Being denied the opportunity to worship, Jones, Allen, and other African American members of the church walked out before the prayer was finished. Allen and Jones had been ejected from the church.
Sojourner finishes the initial emotional connection with her audience through her religion. By making biblical references, Sojourner’s mostly Christian audience related to her as a fellow christian and responds more positively to her stance on equality. Through these personal anecdotes, Sojourner invites her audience, who are mostly women suffering from their own forms of discrimination, to realize the injustices of which they too are victims. Sojourner plays on the emotions of her audience in order to grab their attention and their willingness for change by sharing her own personal feelings to which they can relate.
It was then argued that it was not the league’s right to suspend the basketball player even if his opinion was offensive to others, but he still had the religious freedom to express his opinions as stated in the American constitution.... ... middle of paper ... ... This could be argued by the simple fact that the legal system (despite being a supposedly emotionless system), is in fact, based highly on emotion.
The issue that is at hand is if the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 is being violated, which says that the federal government “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless that burden is the least restrictive means to further a compelling governmental interest, allows a corporation the ability to deny its employees the health coverage of contraceptives to which the employees are entitled by federal law, based on the religious objections of the corporation’s owners. But the debate over the legitimacy of the case has ripped a path all the way to the Supreme Court. Hobby Lobby argues intensely that they should be exempt from certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act, because of the owners Mennonite religious beliefs and practices. What is at risk here isn't just the freedom of religion, but about power over one’s health care.
As a picture bride there were many social injustices they had to conform to in order to survive in their
This statement had caused a huge dispute between the SANBS and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GLA)
For some background, this case escalated to the Supreme Court since several groups of same-sex couples from different states, sued state agencies when their marriage was refused to be recognized. As it escalated through appeals, the plaintiffs argued that the states were violating the Equal Protection clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal Protection, according to the Constitution refers to the fact that, “any State [shall not] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” (23). The opposition of this case was that, 1) The Constitution does not address same-sex marriage as a policy, and 2) The sovereignty of states regarding the decision. Ultimately, and according to the Oyez project, the Court held that “[the Amendment] guarantees the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects, and that analysis applies to same-sex couples,” and therefore, same-sex marriage is a fundamental liberty.
The topic that Keith Boykin brings up is the issue that the Black community, black ministers and churches specifically, do not support same sex marriages. He addresses the hypocrisy he sees in this, as the black community was once the group fighting for equality. According to Boykin, blacks don’t support gay marriage rights for two reasons. Blacks only see images and representations from the gay white community, so they don’t feel like it involves them. There is not many people in the black community that are openly gay in their churches, so the community is lacking a face of their own to tie the issue to. They also don’t support same sex marriages because they have been offended by gay white activists trying to correlate and compare the struggle blacks had during segregation to the present day gay rights struggle.
When Smith introduces her audience to the Bowden family, she places a great emphasis on their ardent dedication to their Jehovah’s Witness faith. A key feature of this fundamentalist faith is a worldview that relegates women to an inferior role within the family. Hortense Bowden often regurgitates these supposed truths about women’s inferiority,
...agreed with, some that frustrated, and some that embarrassed me when my personal preferences defied logic or biblical mandate. I would recommend this reading to any who impact church worship (employee or volunteer). Not as a firm guide, but as thought-provoking advice on how corporate worship can impact an ever-changing culture. I think any worship leader would be impacted by Dawn’s questions:
Throughout history there have always been an abundant source of prejudice and discrimination towards women. Many generations have followed and continuously tolerated the sexist ideals that were reinforced. In a religious perspective, Saint Paul, had insisted than when in the church, women should cover their heads, and should not talk. Many churches today still follow this belief and require that men and women are segregated in the church.
The ruling of Baehr vs. Lewin was a victory for gay rights activists, hope for other states searching for the same freedom, and disappointment for opponents of same-sex marriage. Yet this victory was short lived (until complete legalization in November 13, 2013) since the state appealed the lower court’s decis...
...nvolving for-profit corporations. Hobby Lobby Inc. is one of the plaintiffs. David Green and his family are the owners and say their Christian beliefs clash with parts of the laws’ mandates for comprehensive coverage. Companies that refuse to provide the coverage could be fined up to $1.3 million daily. The Obama administration has defended the law and federal officials say they have already created rules exempting certain nonprofits and religiously affiliated organizations from the requirements. The cases accepted by the Supreme Court were Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius.
Religious festivals were a much easier and accessible way for citizen women to involve themselves in the civic sphere and many of these festivals required the inclusion of women because male involvement was forbidden. The religious festival of Thesmophoria w...
Through out the movie, many of the characters, and plot points practice rationality to justify an absurdity. The factory owner decisions to maximize profit can be understood as acting rationally, yet his application of his ideas is hyper-rational because his tries to automate his workers. Once the workers transform from using machines to compliment their labor to embodying machines, rationality does not justify the owner decisions. The government is also depicted being hyper rational. When the police arrest Charlie for being a leader of the protest, their evidence is not logical. Using logical reasoning, they see that Charlie is leading the protest, and carrying a flag, thus he must be the leader of the protest. Their evidence follows a line of logic, but it would be clear that Charlie is innocent if they investigated their accusation. The police apprehension of Charlie’s girlfriend at the restaurant also follows a similar line hyper rational logic. Social services detains her because she is an orphan, so she is unfit to care for herself under the eyes of the law. The law’s intent was to ensure individuals that who cannot support of themselves are being supported. With her employment, Ellen shows that she can care of herself .If the members of social services could leave their ruthlessly pragmatic mindset, then they would realize that it is unnecessary to apply the law in this