The Arizona legislature just passed a bill (see NYT) allowing businesses to refuse to serve customers if doing so would violate their “religious beliefs.”

This bill will right important moral wrongs like the flower shop owner whose conscience would bother him just forever if he had to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding (case in Washington state). Hmm…I wonder if the florist’s conscience would also prod him to donate flowers for free to all funerals of gay people? And the bakery in Colorado that doesn’t want to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.  Of course, I guess this would also mean that a Muslim business owner would be able to refuse to serve unveiled women (or a woman alone or, gasp, in the company of an unrelated man!).

We’ve got to put a halt right now to business owners being forced to act against their beliefs! Next thing you know, restaurants will have to let Black people eat right next to White folks! Plantation owners will even have to give up their slaves, which of course the bible permits (Leviticus 25: 44-46)! Why the moral fabric of society will be torn completely asunder if religious shopkeepers can’t follow their Christian principles and refuse to serve people who don’t share their beliefs. I mean, that’s what Jesus always did, right? When all those people came for Passover dinner at the Sea of Galilee and there weren’t enough loaves and fish to go around, Jesus made sure that the true believers got served and the undeserving poor (some of whom were probably prostitutes for crying out loud!) were sent packing, right? Least, that’s how I remember it. Maybe I better check the bible again (John 6:1-14). Hey, wait a minute. Jesus served everybody? He made sure there were enough loaves and fishes for all? He didn’t even check photo ID?

Now, I’m not a Christian, but I’d think that if these Christian business owners really thought they needed to run their shops based on their oh-so-important religious beliefs, they could at least pick some non-toxic ones. Beliefs like 1 John 3:17-18 “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Christian values, my ass.