Gays and Religion Just Can't Get Along    

     Erick Erickson, a contributor on FoxNews.com's opinion page, believes that Gay Marriage and Religious Freedom are Incompatible.  In his article, he lists eight examples of "a fight" against religious freedom being wrought upon Christians by gay and lesbian couples.  He states, "The gay rights movement must drive from the town square those who disagree and must punish and silence those who refuse to surrender their belief that marriage is between a man and a women."  It is a fairly short article, but quite dense in several logical fallacies. 

     Since Erickson's intended audience is like minded, conservative Christians, he hit the main talking points that a certain segment of our population is tuned in to.  He knows just what to say to get their heads nodding in agreement and fingers shaking in disapproval.  All you have to do to get conservative Christians on your side of an argument is to play the Persecution Card.  Oh yes.  In America, where roughly 70% of the population identifies as Christian, Christianity is under attack!

     "The fight has only just begun," Erickson asserts.  Christians must be on constant high alert because all around there are people who want to take away their religious freedom.  Christianity, aka family values, aka morals, are under attack.  And the 4% of Americans who identify as LGBT, they are a huge threat to the poor, persecuted Christians just trying to uphold their faith in peace.

     In Erickson's list of examples, he perpetuates this favorite of Christian myths by painting a distinct picture of the two sides.  He uses words that depict the Christians in his examples as the innocent victims of a great villain.  The comic book version of this myth using Erickson's words would look like this:  (red indicates words he used to describe gay couples and blue for Christians)

The Big (4%) Scary Power-Drunk Gay Mob (aka "Agenda Impresarios") is ransacking American cities!  They are stomping on churches and Christian owned businesses!  They "must drive from the town square those who disagree and must punish and silence those who refuse to surrender their belief that marriage is between a man and woman." Meanwhile, stalwart Christians who merely disagree and politely decline and use only the weapon of op-ed pieces in their local paper, are having their freedoms trampled!  They are being evicted!  Customers are freezing business with their companies!  People are being fired from their jobs over the expression of their opinion!

   Honestly, even giving this article two minutes of my time is too much.  But here is one minute more...

    Is Erickson so drunk on this mythical fear of his religious freedoms being taken away that he completely disregards that 5 out of his 8 examples have nothing to do with religious freedom at all?  5 of the persecuted Christians were business owners who denied services to the gay couples they were later sued by.  The business owners were sued because they were violating the state's non-discrimination law!  A Photographer, a T-shirt shop owner, two bed and breakfast owners, and the owner of an inn, all denied services to these couples based on their sexual orientation.  There are laws against that, and yeah, when the law is not kept, lawsuits happen.  What other legal recourse does a minority group have if it is being oppressed or denied rights by the majority? 


 Example involving a religious institution:

A Methodist church in New Jersey was sued for not offering its facility for use during same-sex weddings. A judge ruled against the church.

     On the outset, this example is actually one that seems to raise a legitimate question about wither or not gay and lesbian couples should be able to demand that any church, regardless of their beliefs on gay marriage, permit them to use their facilities.  Oh, if only Google had not been invented though and a three second search could not produce the following facts:

The Methodist church violated the requirements of its "Green Acres" tax exemption, which required it to make its facility open to the public.
The church has since replaced the "Green Acres" exemption with an exemption specifically created for religious institutions, allowing it to continue discriminating against gay people. Fox News Fails To Prove That Marriage Equality Threatens Religious Liberty... Eight Times In A Row

     Just check the article for the explanation of the other two examples.  As the title of the article states, Erickson "Fails."  He fails to address an argument without resorting to ad homonym attacks.  He fails to get his facts right.  He fails to draw meaningful, logical conclusions about the issue.  He fails to convince me that his argument that "gay marriage and religious freedom are incompatible", is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to rationalize religious sanctioned bigotry.