As the title implies, this is an introductory post. I am going to cover the basics for those who need it most, Republicans, and I am going to use small words so they will be sure to understand. It now occurs to me that I just made a "The Princess Bride" reference, and what follows will probably come across to them as insulting and condescending if they deign to read it.
Let me start with the simple fact that we are not, and were not founded as a Christian nation. I would think that Founding Father, Declaration of Independence Signer, Devout Christian, and Second President expressly writing that in a treaty in 1799 would have ended the debate on that point. However, this is 2015. Hence, my liberal bias has obviously mischaracterized the words which we can all read where he says that since we ARE NOT a Christian nation, we ARE NOT at war with Muslims (troll alert: the actual word he used was akin to "Musslmen" but I don't have the patience to look it up).
More to follow:
Wingnuts, um er I mean Conservatives, like to point out that the "Separation of Church and State" is not in the Constitution. There was a great moment about this in the debate between Chris Coons, now Senator from Delaware, and Christine "I'm not a witch" O'Donnell. He said it was in the First Amendment, she said not so much. Now, the "Establishment Clause" which effectively does create a wall separating Church and State is a part of the First Amendment, but it does not explicitly say as much.
There is an old allegory about a man punching people in the nose. He tells a judge that that is how he exercises his unalienable right to "pursue happiness." The judge responds that his right to pursue happiness ends at the tip of his neighbor's nose. Freedom of religion has similar limitations. Similar, but not precise. Your freedom of religion extends only up to the tip of another person's equal protection.
You are free to practice your religion, all day, every day. You are free to live by all of its dictates. However, if you sell wedding cakes, you have to sell wedding cakes to everybody. Forcing you to do so is not an attack on your religion, no matter how badly you want it to be. It is an enforcement of the highest ideals of freedom and equality.
Selling the cake does not make you condone homosexuality. You can even lecture your gay clientele about the sinful nature of their nuptials. You are not required to sell them 2 male or two female statuettes to place atop the cake. Kosher deli's do not sell bacon to anyone. If they sold bacon to some people and not others on some arbitrary basis, that is discrimination.
Irony alert: You are free to pick and choose which random rules of your religion you feel you have to follow. Really! Knock yourself out! Republicans like to use the word certainty. It is important that businesses have it. So here you go. There are some leegal restrictions on business transactions, age limits, medical restrictions and the like. What you may legally sell to some people, you must legally sell to all who meet the same requirements. Anything else is discrimination, plain and simple. Discrimination is a violation of American Values.