Ethics and Religion Talk: When Your Religion Impinges on My Religion

Would you encourage members of your community to do business, or attempt to do business, with businesses who fundamentally disagree with some aspect of their lives? For example, to book a wedding at a venue which does not believe in the validity of same sex marriage or book a gun control organization fundraiser at a Texas venue which sponsors exotic game hunts.

Father Kevin Niehoff, O.P., a Dominican priest who serves as Judicial Vicar, Diocese of Grand Rapids, responds:

The Catholic Church teaches that when “faced with moral choices, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them” (Catechism of the Catholic Church p. 440). Further, “some rules apply in every case: 1) one may never do evil so that good may result from it; 2) the Golden Rule – “whatever you wish that someone would do to you, do so to them, and 3) charity always proceeds by way of respect for one’s neighbor and his conscience – ‘thus sinning against your brother or sister and wounding their conscience is sinning against Christ.’ Therefore ‘it is right not to do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble” (Ibid., p. 441).

The examples given are troublesome. There are people on both sides of the issue. When someone seeks my advice, I always remind them of “the Golden Rule.” My role is not to say yes or no to these questions. My role is to help the individual to be just, fair, and honest to oneself and those seeking services that might seem contrary to one’s beliefs.

The Reverend Colleen Squires, minister at All Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, responds:

Personally, I would not encourage this behavior. I think of a gay couple looking for a baker to make their wedding cake. I would hope they would find a baker that is supportive of their big day and wants to be part of the celebration. I do not see the benefit in supporting businesses that discriminate against certain people especially in the name of their religion. I would also hope and try to remain consistent with our beliefs when and where we do business outside of our congregation.

Linda Knieriemen, a retired pastor of the Presbyterian Church (USA), responds:

Where church members do business is none of the pastor’s business. 

I would however encourage parishioners as a matter of their personal integrity to maintain a consistency between what they believe and how they practice their faith in the marketplace. Our lives, our beliefs and behaviors should be cut from one piece of cloth…

Rev. Laurie Crelly, Senior Pastor at East Congregational Church UCC, responds:

Short answer no, we would not encourage people to financially support a business they see as fundamentally opposed to their values. Some United Church of Christ congregations or the Social Justice ministries of the congregation would advocate for boycotts of businesses as a form of protest. I think it is more popular to support businesses that do reflect our values and encourage people to express their values through their spending power.

For example, a church that is dedicated to racial justice also sees the economic disparities in society and would encourage members to spend more of their funds supporting Black and Brown owned businesses. As a congregation we could make a policy that catering should go to a minority owned small business if possible. 

Fred Stella, the Pracharak (Outreach Minister) for the West Michigan Hindu Temple, responds:

I would consider this a very personal decision that I would not interfere with. If someone comes to me and says that they are thinking of doing business with a controversial vendor I would be happy to offer my thoughts. But the devotee would have to reach out to me for advice before I’d comment.

My response:

It seems that the questioner is referring to a recent lawsuit in which an apple farmer was barred from participating in an East Lansing farmer’s market because he posted that he would not rent his orchard to host same-sex weddings, saying that such weddings violated his Catholic religious beliefs. The city responded by denying him a vendor license for the farmer’s market, citing an anti-discrimination ordinance. The court ruled that the ordinance was a burden on the farmer’s religious beliefs, denying him a government benefit – selling produce at the farmer’s market – for which he was otherwise qualified. This follows several lawsuits in which people planning same-sex ceremonies were denied service by businesses whose religious beliefs prevented them from accepting those customers’ business.

Jewish weddings often take place on Sunday, because traditional Jews will not get married on Saturday before the end of the Sabbath at dark. Were there a venue which was closed on Sunday because of their observance of the Christian Sabbath, I would not encourage Jews to book such a venue for a wedding. I am sensitive to the issue of freedom of religious expression and do not want anyone to be denied the ability to freely practice their religion. However, it is clear that there are cases where your religious expression might rub up again my religious expression. In those cases, we need to give each other a bit of grace and understanding and, when necessary, do a bit of tzimtzum, sacred shrinking of the ego, to make space for the other’s sacred practices, even when they conflict with our own.