Here's the real issue: Hyper-Conservative Christians want Freedom of Religion to envelope them wherever they go and whatever they do, 24-7. They want the right to be out in the secular public conducting business and vying for our money, but they also want their religious freedom to extend to the threshold of their businesses. Religious Freedom means being able to wear whatever clothing, jewelry, scarves, hats, shoes or other vestments that declare your religious affiliations and beliefs without persecution from the Government, not from individual people. Religious Freedom means being able to attend any house of worship at any time of your choosing, any day of the week, for whatever spiritual and religious purposes fit your needs, without the restraint of the Government, not without the limits of the hours of availability of that particular church, or place of worship. Churches do close for the night, and ministers do sleep, so there really isn't a lot of demand for 24 hour worship centers, and no one is complaining that the Government is "preventing the free exercise of religious belief" when these worship centers lock their doors.
Religious Freedom means being able to have your photo taken at the DOT with a colander on your head. If Jews and Muslims can wear yarmulkes and scarves, you can wear a spaghetti strainer. That's the law and that's your right to do so, without persecution or infringement by the Government. Religious Freedom does NOT prevent individuals from pointing at you and laughing about you when you are exercising your religious beliefs. They just can't come over and punch you. That's assault, and that's what the law does, it protects everyone and treats us all equally. Religious Freedom means I can wear a silver pentagram ring on my left hand and my employer cannot demand that I remove it during working hours because my co-worker is a devout Christian and is frightened by the symbol. That's what the secular laws do: they protect me as much as everyone else when I exercise my religious beliefs in public.
If I choose, I can start a business, where I ask for Government-backed legal tender in the form of paper bills and coins. When I offer goods and services to the public in exchange for Government funded certificates authorizing the exchange of these goods for credits that are stored in a bank (also backed by the Government and insured by the Government) I must treat everyone who exchanges these bills for my services EQUALLY, with no regard to their religious beliefs, OR MY OWN. I cannot refuse to offer my services or goods to anyone presenting legal tender just because I feel that my particular god does not approve of their particular god (or lack thereof). I cannot force the aura of my Freedom of Religion to extend to the threshold of my business, where I am exchanging goods and services for Government-backed funds. Freedom of Religious Expression rests solely on the person, not on their business.
No one is preventing me the right to exercise my religion by limiting my ability to discriminate against people who do not agree with my religious views. I do not have the right to own and operate a business, I have a privilege to own and operate a business, guided by Government laws and regulations, taxed and licensed by Government oversight departments like the IRS and the EPA and OSHA. I am not an island of religious beliefs, and if I want to have the Government money, the Government services and the Government protections, I have to live with and respect the rule of law and open my business to anyone with legal tender, who is desirous to purchase the service, and I cannot refuse to serve them based only on my religious views. I can refuse based on a large array of reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with religion, things that would place me in a harmful situation like having drunk patrons or gun-toting lunatics. Yeah, I can kick them right out. But if I have a thought that you might not agree with my religious beliefs, and even if I think you might be living completely contrary to the way I would choose to live, I cannot refuse to do business with you.
I am not a business owner. I can discriminate against anyone I choose by simply not sitting next to them, not talking to them, not even looking at them. I can refuse to stand in line with someone I don't particularly like. I can wait for the next train if I don't like the way the car looks when it arrives. I can sit at a table alone in a restaurant and not be seated with people who I probably don't agree with. Those are my Religious Freedoms. I exercise them daily by moving my body and closing my mouth. Religious Freedom does not mean I can place my body wherever I want and insist on my religious beliefs getting observed by everyone around me or I'm being "repressed" or "attacked".
If someone is uncomfortable around me and my pentagram ring, they can remove themselves, they can talk about me to others, they can call attention to it and ridicule me, but they cannot have me arrested. That's Religious Freedom. I have to understand that wearing the pentagram comes with risks like this, just like Jews understand the risks of wearing their hair in long locks and Muslims understand the stares caused by a hijab. They are not "free" from the stares and the mocking. They ARE free from being thrown in prison, and they ARE free to practice their faith in public, all the time, wherever they are. If they are beaten by a mob, they are the victim, and the mob is the perpetrator.
Business owners who discriminate against paying customers who don't adhere to their particular religious systems are demanding a special protection from the Government, because they need assurance that they live their religion openly and without persecution from individuals that they will discriminate against. This is not Religious Freedom. This is a specific demand that the Government extend the aura of personal religious belief to the threshold of a public business, in a secular society with the express purpose of separating Religion from Government.
Government cannot intervene to protect bigotry and discrimination. These are personal choices, not Religious Freedom. Shut your businesses down, go isolate yourselves in communes of people who believe what you believe, and do business with them. Trade for chickens, trade for vegetables, trade for labor. But don't demand the use of Government money, Government services and Government enforcement to uphold your religious views. That's where the line is drawn.
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