Quote Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla View Post
By firing the employee the employer has inflicted its own belief system on him. Essentially, "agree with us or find another job", and now a judge has upheld that argument. So the message is, "you can discriminate against someone's beliefs so long as they are Christian/ religious."
No to the first sentence. Yes to the second. And no to the third. The employee `was first' and that is what counts here: the employee did do the unwonted discriminating, the employer attached consequences to that act. The employer fired the employee for failing to do his job, which is an objectively provable statement -- not a subjective, personal philosophical stance.
Yes to the second: it is the employer who has the right to set up his/her business based on his/her own philosophical considerations. That's essentially simple market capitalism: if you think there is sufficient market for it, go ahead and make your business out of it. Others are encouraged to do likewise.

No to the third. If a homosexual employee would refuse counseling to a Christian couple based on the fact that Christianity rejects homosexuality, then again the employer has every right to fire the homosexual employee for that. If the Christian couple decides they'd rather not be counseled by the homosexual employee then they can find another shop; much like how if the homosexual couple in the original story had *themselves* rejected Mr Mc Farlane nothing would've been an issue either.