I was watching the Republican debate last night and John Kasich, Governor of Ohio and 2016 Republican candidate for President, made this statement that should send chills down the spine of any believer in religious liberty:
“In regard to same sex marriage I don’t favor it I’ve always favored traditional marriage but look the court has ruled and I’ve moved on and what I have said Hugh is look “where does it end?” if you are in the business of selling things if you are not going to sell to somebody you don’t agree with – today I am not going to sell to somebody whose gay and tomorrow maybe I won’t sell to somebody whose divorced. If you’re in the business of commerce conduct commerce and if you don’t agree with their lifestyle say a prayer for them when they leave and hope they change their behavior but when it comes to religious institutions they are inviolate in my mind and I would fight those institutions…”
http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/02/26/gop-debate-john-kasich-same-sex-marriage-07.cnn
What his answered basically boils down to is – I believe Churches and religious institutions are the only ones who have the right to practice their religious beliefs in their organizations. Business owners do not have that right in John Kasich’s view.
Let me address his gay marriage to divorce comparison. Some Christians come from denominations that strongly preach against divorce of any kind. While we may debate this as Christians we must respect those who hold the position that remarriage is never allowed by God even if we may disagree with them.
That means that the answer to Mr. Kasich’s question about if we should allow someone to refuse to participate in a situation involving divorce the answer my friends is “yes”! A person who believes it is just as immoral to participate in a “remarriage” ceremony as someone who believes it is immoral to participate in a gay marriage ceremony may decline to participate. We can argue about other types of discrimination. But marriage is a religious institution made by God, not by man. Our beliefs as Christians about marriage are a part of the core of our faith and we cannot violate those beliefs even in our businesses.
My divorce attorney and his son have a practice together. He and his father are Catholic. His father handled my divorce from my first wife but his son refuses to have anything to do with divorce cases based on his faith. When his father retires and his son takes over their practice that law practice will no longer take cases of divorce and that is their right to do so.
In the same way a Christian baker, florist, photographer or anyone doing any other business where they would be providing services relating to a gay wedding or any event promoting or honoring the gay lifestyle should NOT be forced to violate their faith by having any participation in these kinds of events.
Except for maybe Ted Cruz, I do not kid myself that many of these politicians actually care about gay marriage but I do want them to care about religious liberty. This battle over gay marriage has now become a battle over religious liberty and we must realize the seriousness of it and we need to look at candidates who will fight for religious liberty.
Mr. Kasich, the Supreme Court may be your final authority for how you live your life but as Bible believing Christians we believe God is our final authority. While it is true that the Bible tells us to “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake…” (I Peter 2:13) the Bible also tells us as believers that we “We ought to obey God rather than men.”(Acts 5:29) There is a time for Christians to practice civil disobedience and when the government steps beyond its God given authority and violates God’s law we have a right and obligation to disregard that law which conflicts with God’s higher law.
Biblical Gender Roles 
Did he address the issue of businesses owned by gays that refuse service to religious people? I mean, I know it was kind of a jerk move, but what about the guy that called up a gay owned bakery and asked them to decorate a ‘marriage is between a man an woman’ cake and they refused? Will he take the same stance against those people or will he continue to pander to the 2-3% of gay people out there? If I were a gambling man I would put everything I have down on ‘pandering’.
Bottom line, religious liberty is part of the issue, but the biggest issue lost on most people now is freedom of association. Buyers and sellers should both have the choice not to do business (or associate) with those they choose not to. This is necessary whether I think it’s a valid reason or not. If someone put a “no blacks allowed” sign in their restaurant window, they may not necessarily go out of business (but probably), but they would never get a dollar from me. No guns or force are necessary.
Wood Chipper,
You are EXACTLY right. Most people do not realize that the 1964 Civil Rights for first time in American history gave the government the power to tell a man what he could do on his own private property(which includes his business). It was a massive overreach violating the principles of the Constitution as well as the natural law of Property rights that our nation was founded on.
Many libertarians today including Ron Paul decry the 1964 Civil Rights act as one of the greatest attacks on American liberty. It was done with noble intents to help blacks that were being disenfranchised but it went too far. Ron Paul has said basically what you have said and I agree if a place had a “blacks only” sign I would not go there and neither would most Americans and they would probably go out of business. But people have the freedom to do what they want with their own property and they have the right to refuse service for ANY reason they deem fit. If a person does not like red headed people they can refuse to serve red headed people. If a person does not like Christians they have a right to refuse service to a Christian.
If Muslim print shop owner does not want to print Gospel tracks for a Christian church it is his right to refuse service. If a gay shop bakery owner does not want to make a cake that says marriage is between a man and a woman he has the right to do that. And if a Christian does not want to make a wedding cake for a gay wedding he has the right to do that as well.
Freedom of business or association is a fundamental right and it has been under assault for decades. We are just now noticing it because of the gay rights movement trying to force people to accept their lifestyle but its been a problem for a long time.