Bill Donohue: Indiana Proof Liberals Are Real 'Masters of Intolerance'
Thursday, 02 Apr 2015 11:35 AM
Americans need to understand the "profound difference" between refusing to serve a gay person and the right to a moral and religious conviction that gay marriage is wrong, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said Thursday during an appearance onNewsmax TV's "America's Forum" where he discussed the furor over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
"There's a profound difference between saying to a person 'I'm not going to serve you a cake, pizza or a drink because you're gay,' " Donohue explained.
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"Those people should not have the right to do that, but you're asking people now to put aside their sincerely held convictions and say that I have to participate and affirm by being able to say that I want two men to get married and providing your birthday cake. I don't think bakers should have to put a Nazi insignia on a birthday cake for somebody anti-Semite. I don't think that an African American baker should have to put the 'N' word on a cake for some white racist and so on.
"Eighty percent of Americans are Christian. This is Holy Week and what are we talking about? The 1.6 percent of Americans who are gay and their rights trumping the religious rights of people when in fact gay rights and straight rights are not mentioned in the Constitution, but religious liberty is encoded in the First Amendment."
Following public outrage over Indiana enacting the law, the state has amended it to clarify that service providers may not use it as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations and may not discriminate based on race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin,disability , sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or United States military service.
Donohue noted that the "hypocrisy is sickening" when it comes to those protesting the law, which is already a federal statute with a state version existing in many places around the country.
"San Francisco is rallying against Indiana and I had to sue San Francisco because of its anti-Catholicism about nine years ago," Donohue said. "Who are these people who come to the table clean like Snow White? Barack Obama voted for the same law when he was a state senator in Illinois."
The left, he said, "are the masters of intolerance."
"The whole thing is bizarre, but most Americans are in favor, as we've seen last January in an AP poll, people are in favor of people saying I don't have to participate in affirming you when it comes to serving people on the basis of business," he said.
"Anti-Semites, racists and anti-gay people should not be able to force people who are Jewish, black or gay to provide for services in terms of offending them. They can opt out, they can always go down the block and find somebody else. That's what a market economy is all about."
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© 2015 Newsmax. All rights reserved."There's a profound difference between saying to a person 'I'm not going to serve you a cake, pizza or a drink because you're gay,' " Donohue explained.
Story continues below video.
"Those people should not have the right to do that, but you're asking people now to put aside their sincerely held convictions and say that I have to participate and affirm by being able to say that I want two men to get married and providing your birthday cake. I don't think bakers should have to put a Nazi insignia on a birthday cake for somebody anti-Semite. I don't think that an African American baker should have to put the 'N' word on a cake for some white racist and so on.
Following public outrage over Indiana enacting the law, the state has amended it to clarify that service providers may not use it as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations and may not discriminate based on race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin,
Donohue noted that the "hypocrisy is sickening" when it comes to those protesting the law, which is already a federal statute with a state version existing in many places around the country.
"San Francisco is rallying against Indiana and I had to sue San Francisco because of its anti-Catholicism about nine years ago," Donohue said. "Who are these people who come to the table clean like Snow White? Barack Obama voted for the same law when he was a state senator in Illinois."
The left, he said, "are the masters of intolerance."
"The whole thing is bizarre, but most Americans are in favor, as we've seen last January in an AP poll, people are in favor of people saying I don't have to participate in affirming you when it comes to serving people on the basis of business," he said.
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