And Freemasons too! They were Freemasons and as such they were required to believe in God/Gods/Goddesses/ any higher being.

#1 – nobody hates God. You can’t hate something that doesn’t exist. Some people have various levels of dislike for the various mythical entities that people have invented. I rather dislike Voldemort, for example.

#2 – There’s a difference between displaying various religious messages, and displaying a message exclusively from a single religion (even if it’s displayed as co-opted by another religion).

You make good points, and I also don’t like having people’s business in my face. If I’m going to be honest with myself, I have to admit that I am probably somewhat biased against gays myself.

Perhaps this is due to the culture in which I was raised, but this is really my problem, not theirs. I don’t like seeing straight people making out in public either. I get the same feeling of disgust as I do when I see gay people do it.

Intellectually, I have no problem with who people decide to love. I also do not think my child would be damaged in any way if they were to witness two people of the same sex kissing. At best this would produce a question or two, and that would be the end of it.

I do disagree with your characterization of “a small number of vocal Christians”. If this was the case, elections wouldn’t hinge on the question, and 8 States wouldn’t have laws against it with 5 more considering adopting new anti-gay legislation.

I am speaking up on this issue now because I feel like Christians are over-reacting. I understand they feel threatened by social change, but forcing religious laws on a free country is not right. That kind of nonsense is what started the English Civil War, and it’s the reason why my ancestors came to this country in the mid-to-late 1600’s.

Nobody is telling Christians that they can’t practice their religion, but forcing their religion on others by passing anti-gay laws is simply wrong. Whatever happened to the messages of ‘pray in private’, love, tolerance, and turn the other cheek? Nobody is saying they have to like it, but tolerance should be a natural response for any true Christian.

Finally, Christians aren’t solely to blame here. They are being provoked and used by politicians as a reliable voting block to get their voters to turn out. (Falwell & Gingrich’s moral majority) This is exactly why nothing was passed for them when Republicans held both houses of Congress & the White House in (2002-2006). If Republicans solved these reliably irritating issues for Christians, they would lose a lot of the support these groups provide. It’s called “voter apathy” and the Republicans fear it above all other issues.

There’s slight difference between a bakery serving a person, and being asked to make a particular cake. I don’t think that cake should be considered crossing the line, especially since it would be an obvious troll, and the best way to respond would be not give them the media story, and just make the damn cake.

I would support a baker’s right to not make a particular cake, like “God hates fags”. or “Christians are idiots”.

And keep in mind that a business can refuse to serve a particular customer. If a gay couple went into a bakery and generally acted like jerks to try to be refused service, I’d be find with them being refused service. It’s only when all gay customers are refused service that I’d have a problem.

I think your perception about Christians being “obsessed” with homosexuality is based on a very small but vocal number of Christians — most Christians (like myself) really don’t care about people’s sexual habits, they just don’t want to hear about them, have them constantly discussed in front of kids (gay, straight, or otherwise), or be asked to accept them as “normal” — it’s no different than people who are into S&M constantly talking about it and asking people not to be uncomfortable when they do.

As for serving people: again, this is based on a very small number of instances.

Question: would it be okay for a bakery run by gays to refuse to make a cake that says “No gay marriage” or “Marriage = 1 man + 1 woman”?

No, I have many reasons to object to religion, and I just mentioned a bunch in the post above. I also think getting into people’s business in the bedroom is wrong like you do, so why are Christians so obsessed with this? Didn’t you hear they are now refusing to serve gay people in their business establishments? This crap is getting out of hand.

I agree that the atheist community tends to attract people who need to feel superior, but I profoundly disagree that religion doesn’t damage critical thinking. Did you hear about the little girl who was stoned to death in Syria for opening a Facebook account? Were those people thinking critically? What about the parent that refuses to give antibiotics to cure an infection in their child because the infection was “God’s plan”? Are we infringing on their religious liberty by insisting on saving this innocent child’s life?