Is a moral principle involved here?

Is a moral principle involved here?

I'm responding to J.E. Sheldon's letter of Jan. 13, "Businesses can't impose beliefs." In this letter, the writer posits that for a business to not sell to a gay couple because of a religious belief is no different from refusing to serve black Americans. Therefore, a florist, bakery, wedding photographer, etc. should have no legal right to refuse to service a gay couple's request based on the business owner's religious belief.

Hypothetically speaking, suppose a church commissioned a bakery owned by a gay couple to make a cake for a church marriage conference that said on it something like, "Celebrating Marriage God's Way." Should the law compel the bakery to furnish the cake?

Interestingly, the verbiage on the cake doesn't explicitly state what God's way is, but, it could be construed to mean, "One man and one woman," by many readers. Because the hypothetical request might be considered by many to be rude, bigoted, obnoxious, etc., should the bakery owned by the gay couple be legally compelled to furnish the cake?

How about a hypothetical florist's shop owned by a Muslim being asked to supply flowers to a church for Christian Easter worship service with a banner that reads, "Jesus is Lord of all!"? What if the shop owner objected? Must he still comply?

Is there really a moral principle involved here, as the writer implied, or is this simply a matter of popular public opinion as to which party must acquiesce? Moral arguments such as promulgated by the letter writer sound good on paper, but in practice I'll bet they're anything but.

Linda Van Dine

Glendale Heights