Posted on 04/03/2015 6:39:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When Tim Cook, the powerful CEO of Apple, bravely announced he was opposed to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, he urged others to follow. “Opposing discrimination takes courage,” Cook wrote.
Meanwhile back in the real world, an Indiana TV reporter somehow found herself on camera, asking a pizzeria owner if she would be willing to cater a gay wedding. You have to wonder how that happened. Did someone alert the reporter that the owner was a committed evangelical? Did she troll the donut shops and pizza parlors of Indiana until she found someone willing to say something really brave: No I wouldn’t cater a gay wedding?
In a powerful demonstration that the gay rights community doesn’t really need laws in order to punish small-time business owners known to oppose gay weddings, the media story spawned an internet mob of threats from the many wackos out there. One high school coach was so outraged by the fact that one small pizza owner felt this way, she immediately asked people to march with her and burn the joint down. She was kidding I assume, but the threat did get her suspended. I don’t believe in hate-speech laws but if you want to campaign against public hate speech, this would be a good place to start.
The owner has shut his pizzeria down and is “in hiding” according to Buzzfeed, after “the internet unleashed its wrath.”
Look, let me clear about two things. First, I don’t think RFRAs are going to protect small-business owners who don’t want to cater gay weddings, nor do most religious liberty scholars I respect. Second, I don’t see any reason why I as a Roman Catholic could not bake a cake or pizza for a gay wedding, in the unlikely event anyone wanted me to do so. (Gay couples: If you are turned down by a local business and want an alternative to crushing a local family’s livelihood, call me!)
In practical terms, if we want to pass legislation protecting wedding-industry vendors, the best strategy is to do so with a specific exemption based on two principles: a) to be protected, a business must be small, as in less than, say, five employees (no Hobby Lobby, in other words); and b) the exemption must be viewpoint neutral. Nobody has to service anyone else’s wedding if they do not want to, unless they plan on discriminating based on race. (The history of race in this country is unlike any other history of oppression, so let us not throw that baby out with the bathwater.)
But whether or not you are willing to act to protect these little guys, let us all acknowledge something that should be obvious: It is not the Tim Cooks of the world who showed courage here. Melissa of Sweet Cakes by Melissa showed courage. Baronelle Stutzman showed courage. Kelvin Cochran showed courage. Eric Moutsos showed courage.
Unlike the Jim Crow era, the economic powers from Apple to Angie’s List are lining up firmly on gay people’s side, and are using economic and cultural power to crush the little folks, the florists and bakers who, whatever you think of them, are not trying to change how gay people live their lives so much as they are just trying to live their own lives.
Watching the backlash, Jill Lawrence of U.S. News crowed that it was a “glimpse into the GOP’s backward bubble.”
I beg to differ on which of us is in a bubble about public opinion. A GoFundMe.com site set up to help the family met its $45,000 goal in less than eight hours with hundreds of small donations. As I write, over 8,000 people have given over $230,000 in less than 24 hours.
Some 57 percent of Americans in the AP/GFK February poll agree it is wrong for the government to punish little guys like the florist. A new Marist poll for Catholic News Agency found an even higher level of support, with 65 percent of respondents saying wedding professionals should have the right not to serve gay weddings.
As I write, every major GOP candidate except Scott Walker, Ron Paul, and Lindsey Graham has now offered public support for Indiana and Mike Pence.
But the forces now allied against tolerance are still massive, and they include major swaths of the Republican donor class. As a result, traditional believers do not have a lot of things we will need in the fights to come.
We do not have anti-defamation organizations working hard to document and then reduce the hatred now being generated by the culturally empowered Left. We do not have political institutions raising money that can be spent to elect Senators and Presidents who support our views, or organizing donors to support our liberties. We do not have anyone like the Koch brothers willing to intelligently deploy their fortune to advance our core values by creating a high-value intellectual infrastructure, as well a political organization. We do not have a communications network to make sure we can get our message out, when and if Fox News refuses to cover us. We do not have an Internet rapid-response team, or a crisis PR firm on hand and ready to help as needed.
We do not have what a moral minority needs to survive and then thrive. We do not have what we need to keep Christianity from being redefined as racism in the public square.
Indiana represents an important cultural crossroads: Will we recognize where we are and find new ways not only to fight, but to win?
Will we find a way to stand and fight this new wave of hatred and intolerance, while recognizing and communicating that we know gay people have the same right that we’re demanding for ourselves — the right to live as one chooses?
— Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project.
Will he stop the opening of stores in Saudi Arabia? Gays are killed there you know!!!
Chick-Fil-A-Sandwich Shooter Identified FRC as Target Using Southern Poverty Law Center Website
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/chick-fil-sandwich-shooter-identified-frc-target-using-southern-poverty-law-center
hopefully the Indiana pizza shop owner won’t be killed by an enraged ,leftist, ‘tolerance’-preaching SPLC fan.
I too will bake the silly cake, doesn’t mean I approve of their lifestyle which is none of my beeswax.
If I open a cake baking business, I want to sell as many cakes as possible. If I open a pizza business, same.
Well good for you....
But will you defend the rights of those whose conscience and religious convictions tell them not to participate in a ceremony they consider an affront to what they believe is a sacrament?
Another Freeper posted a comment the other day saying that companies that come under fire and are (likely) set up like these small companies were, should just say “Yes”, and then tell the proposed customer that the revenues will be donated to their church and that you appreciate them supporting their beliefs. I would add that the deposit received for such cakes (or whatever) should state the donation plan in print at the bottom of the receipt. My guess is that saying Yes removes the target from their back over time and helps their church during the process.
I disagree with the trampling of individual rights this country is going through right now. My attitude is that, if my beliefs inflict no costs on someone else, I should be able to do as I please. Today, however, I have Big Brother standing over me making sure I do what THEY want, not what I want. I think that’s wrong.
will you bake the silly cake because someone threatens to sue, ruin, or kill you if you don’t?
Whole bunch of us know exactly where we are and have known for a long time.
This is a fight to the finish.
Poor Maggie and the whole flock of them in the East are scurrying and squawking saying Is that really an ax Is that really an ax??
Why don’t Gays just keep their mouths closed.
Op’s don’t want to interfere with their sex lives.
Sorry!
I believe it is a sacrament too and no “gay” marriage is a real marriage. So if they want a cake or a pizza for make believe, big deal.
And if they want their wedding cake in the shape of a silly Piss Christ?
You going to make and sell that cake too?
RE: I believe it is a sacrament too and no “gay” marriage is a real marriage
This would be like Christians in ancient Rome who were asked to proclaim that “Cesar is God”. Many simply, out of self-protection, went through the proclamation, reasoning that “in my mind, I don’t believe it anyway”. But many others preferred to be put to prison rather than violate the first commandment.
As I said, your conscience tells you differently. But what about those whose conscience tells them differently?
Does the law protect them?
Apparently not.
I think most of the media is (intentionally??) missing the point here. Let’s look at the bakery/wedding cake example. My guess is that the bakery owners would gladly sell their generic donuts, rolls and cakes to anyone who walks through the door. They have no issue selling their products to gays.
Where is issue arises is when they are asked to produce a product which conveys a message that they find morally objectionable. They are then being asked to violate their religion and their morality. The left is attempting to damage those who don’t share their beliefs.
Where is the tolerance and acceptance of heart-held religious principles? Many of us believe our religion should instruct our lives and behavior. Religion confined to one hour on Sunday is not religion and is not what God intended.
It certainly isn't RINO coward, Gov. Mike "Nancy-boy" Pence, or the RINO wussies in the Indiana state legislature. These spineless wonders have yellow paint dripping down their backs.
AFAIK, if someone was discriminatory, well, I would be looking for somewhere else, or wouldn’t end up a customer while gladly, and I mean gladly letting everyone know what a bad place said restaurant is. If anything, it’s pretty much that the world is so full of promoting extreme sensationalism because they don’t want any peace.
So what happens to the business if a stream of such requests comes in, and all of the proceeds are sent out of the business?
And what happens to the owner who abrogates their Christian convictions to stay in business? Wouldn’t it be like taking the mark in order to trade?
The left is willing to do anything to criminalize Christian morals.
The current rulings are directly opposed to the first amendment. If the US is no longer under that stricture, then the civil process has run its course, IMO.
Purchasing a wedding cake used to mean that you wanted your wedding guests to have a great piece of a lovely cake. Now it must be part of a statement perhaps with signage "The grooms, Ralph and Reggie, are so pleased that they were able to arrange to have O'Mara's Holy Cross Bakery bake our cake. We are assured that it is the same cake recipe used for all all their customers."
I didn’t mean to say that all of the proceeds would go to the church, but that there would be a donation to it from the proceeds. I agree there are a lot of things wrong with the way the thought process is going in this country right now.
I just heard on the radio that a Muslim bakery in Dearborn, MI, has refused to cater a gay wedding, but there’s nothing about it from the MSM media. Kinda sounds like the MSM has a one-sided agenda to me.
The MSM agenda is absolutely one-sided. All against Christians.
I do not know how to force the courts to recognize that religious liberty and the right to associate (or not) must necessarily trump the “feelings” of people. But I strongly believe that is the correct course to take - not defensively trying to convince the other side not to inflict their harm on us.
Sodom and Gomorrah wedding cake special.
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