I am tiring of trying to find what happened, and will probably quit.
If you read through the lot of it, and lord help you if you do, I suggest that you pay attention to the changes in Jewel's affect as things played out. Among other things you may notice his glee early on when he considered you on his "side," his dejection and insecurity when you disappeared, and his near orgasmic elation (the end zone dance) when you found a basis for Mojo's freedom of conscience, after all, thus placing you firmly back home on his "side" where you belonged. If you do that, you may encounter some worthwhile "intelligence."
That indicates to me that I am doing something right, but, of course, I may be wrong.......
If at some point you elect to revisit this, you might find that intelligence useful.
The issue is at what point does society get to substitute its moral conclusions for those of the individual, and how do we distinguish a conscience claim from mere prejudice or whim......
It seems that you have potentially found a basis for freedom of conscience in the Mojo scenario that may satisfy you. This discussion started, as you say, with a question of freedom of conscience. Jewel came up with the Mojo scenario to test the notion of freedom of conscience. I don't think there was ever a question of Mojo's right to believe what he wanted and practice it in private, whether based on freedom of conscience or on something else.
What was in question was whether he could practice it publicly, in his business, without getting into trouble or hurting someone else. It is the practical aspect of the practice of this freedom that caused the hulabaloo, not the theoretical basis. All we know of your thoughts on that is that Mojo's business should not be regulated to proscribe his approach and that Mojo could have made a more practicable career choice. Well, the "opposition" pretty much agrees with that. It's the practical aspect of this that has generated the heat--practical questions about law suits and insults and referrals and sorting the gays from the straights. The theoretical part is child's play for you. You might not find the rest of it so easy.
Yes, the prejudice vs. whim thing is of important, but even after you've sorted that out, there's still the question of what sign, if any, you hang on the door. |
