After reading bout this case, I have some thoughts to share especially to those who supported this ruling.
Before all else, pls note that I am a Christian and my opinions are never intending to hurt or disrespect anybody. Feel free to challenge them.
Firstly, i would like to address the problem with our society today - "being overly sensitive towards certain things too easily". Looking carefully into the facts, it is actually just a Christian refusing to ice a cake with the motto "supporting gay marriage". What he did was only expressing his personal stance against SUPPORTING gay marriage. I believe he never meant to look down on the customer or discriminate him in any ways to continue buying bread from his shop in the future. Sometimes, it is the wording that is the main issue here : "Support". Frankly speaking, isn't it already a general knowledge to you folks that Christianity does not support gay marriages? But many of us Christians, have always tried our best to still respect everyone on the grounds of sexual orientations. For instance taking me as an example, I would try to avoid this very sensitive topics and still embrace my fellow friends no matter how you are like wink emoticon , just not by accompanying you in any gay rights campaigns whatsoever. I'm not off topic, because i think Ashers bakery is actually trying to respect his customer by just merely turning away from making the cake. There is no mentioning on whether he had verbally insulted the customer. We practice Christianity all the while holding onto our genuine beliefs because the law allows us to, remember Religious Freedom? Freedom of expression? We must learn to accept the fact that there is definitely going to have conflicts of interests because we live in a pluralist society, so the bottom line here is to justify the definition of "respect" for each other. And don't forget, a business owner is not obliged to sell anything to anyone even if they r willing to pay for them, so it's definitely not unreasonable or disproportionate to allow a Christian shop owner to act in this manner, provided that they did so in a polite manner.
Secondly, I understand that this action may result in hurting the claimant's feelings in some way, but I find it is unnecessary to bring this matter to court if plainly on this argument. Who among us never felt hurt by actions or inactions of ppl in our surroundings in the process of growing up? Let's say you genuinely wanted to pursue a certain ambition but was opposed by ur parents, do you sue them for this? well unless they abused you then its a different story. Everyone has a CHOICE and different personal preferences because of their religious beliefs, so you just take it or leave it, it won't affect your status in any way actually, it is unfair to FORCE people into compromising completely for your interests alone.
Thirdly, I believe this ruling has disappointed many Christians because it has indirectly attacked the principles in Christianity, declaring publicly that it is of lower standard when it comes to gay rights, and that we Christians have no standing at all in relation to compromising for the interests of the LGBT community in the future even if the action is deemed proportionate in the eyes of a neutral body.
God bless
Mandy W
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