Posted on 06/21/2015 5:26:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Christian owners of a gift shop and bistro in Iowa, who were earlier charged with discrimination and had to pay for a settlement after refusing to hold a same-sex wedding at the venue, say they are now having to close down their business completely.
Richard Odgaard and his wife, Betty, the owners of Görtz Haus Gallery in Grimes, Iowa, say they will close their business completely by the end of August, about two years after they told a gay couple from Des Moines their facility cannot be rented for the wedding.
The gay couple promptly filed a discrimination complaint through the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Although the Odgaards refused to admit they discriminated against the same-sex couple, they agreed for a $5,000 settlement.
"Our faith hasn't changed," Betty earlier said after the settlement. "Of course, it's kind of a crushing blow because that's a major part of our business and weddings are so absolutely gorgeous in that place."
The settlement couldn't deal with the aftermath.
"We can't pretend it's going to get better. There wasn't enough business," The Daily Signal quoted Betty, 63, as saying on Friday.
The Mennonite couple started their bistro, flower shop, art gallery and wedding venue after buying a 77-year-old stone church in 2012.
After local media reported on the discrimination complaint, other couples also cancelled their bookings of the venue.
"The Görtz Haus Gallery has discontinued venue and floral services for weddings thereby enabling us to conduct business according to our conscience without the threat of allegations of discrimination," reads a notice on the home page of the gallery's website.
The Odgaards feared they would attract more complaints and lawsuits if they continued to offer their building as a wedding venue. "We didn't have a choice. We would be targets," Betty, who recently went into depression due to the circumstances, was quoted as saying.
The Christian couple now feels isolated from their community, as they cannot speak out due to pending litigation on the right of businesses to refuse services to customers based on their religious beliefs.
The Odgaards see a 2009 decision of the Iowa Supreme Court as the beginning of their violation of religious freedom. "I think if people in Iowa would have had a chance to vote on this, it would have never have been this way. People in Iowa are pretty conservative," Betty was quoted as saying.
"With the discrimination laws and the legality of same-sex marriage in this state, now you have to prove that you didn't discriminate," added Richard.
The Odgaards are leaving their business, but not quitting.
"Inspired by their experiences, the Odgaards have organized God's Original Design Ministry, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, to advance Christian teachings, Biblical ordinances and natural laws as God intended," the gallery's website announces.
The Christian couple also plans to use the building for its original function, by turning it back into a church. "That would be the most wonderful option," Betty said.
“Yet Another Christian Family-Run Business Closing After Refusing to Host Gay Wedding [Iowa]”
Along with being the most disgusting perversion of man kind
they are the most intolerant perverts to boot. No wonder
they have been outcasts since the beginning of recorded
history.
It is Iowa, not Utah. But you are right, it could happen anywhere.
Amen!....God bless them.
I have a 21 year-old son who thought gays were 30% of the population based on TV shows and movies today. He didn’t believe the number I gave him at 1%-2%. He has been brainwashed by the MSM.
They went to a Mennonite family business knowing the outcome. They just wanted to cause problems and bring attention to themselves.
>>the next item on their list will be the Christian Chaplains who serve in the military.
Yep.
By my own count, we’ve had at least 6 cases of such lawsuits against devout Christian business folks from Oregon to Colorado to New Mexico to Indiana and now Iowa.
It is a given that this will now be a regular occurrence.
What I am more concerned with is this -— what can Christian business folks do about this?
Is it a given that they simply close up and shut up and endure persecution, or is there a legal non-violent way in these once great country where they can secure their rights?
Remember this — they are the FIRST of many victims. Who knows who will be next?
A coalition of Sodomites, blacks, Asians, Mexicans and non-Christians is conquering Western Man.
*****************************
The Church never can and never will give satisfaction—and the homosexualist knows it, for he knows the words against him are ineradicable—to the declared and impenitent homosexual, the person who, through an act of the vermiculate will, has identified his person with a sin, whether he demands acceptance of his sin through "love," or vindication through identification of his perceived enemies as bigots. Whether he presents himself as an object of love or indignation, what he demands in either case is acceptance not of the person, but of the sin-bound and sin-defined person. He demands the declaration of spiritual authority that there is nothing objectively disordered about this binding of man to sin, and assurance that this monstrous amalgam can indeed enter the kingdom of heaven. This can never happen among Christians until they abandon Christianity, which is at war with every sin, and whose indelible constitution places all perversions of the perfect man at the muzzle of its canons.
>>How much of the persecution goes unreported?
HR departments call it “perception” - not persecution.
The “offended” reprobates/Marxists are quite adept at manufacturing “perception” against anyone who dares question the worship of their “culture”.
All due respect, maybe you are too young to remember....
.....it was more than a few Chrustians....
.....in 1988 through 1993 the momentum built to protect life.....
And thousands of Christians not only took to the streets in front of abortion clinics......they also risked arrest....and were arrested.........pastors, teachers, engineers, grandparents, etc
Either not enough support to sustain their actions.......plus they were eventually charged under the RICO law.....so folks lost their nerve
Even then.....more than 20 years ago......they said IF we don’t hold the line here.....it will happen again, and you or you or you will be called to take a stand.
Well, it’s here.
I fully expect pastors will be arrested for not towing the government line about gays.
Exactly.
Faggies = fascists
We let the less than 2% do this to us. Disgusting!
Sorry, my oversweeping statement does not suggest ‘no strong parental guidance’ in your case.
I need to be more cautious in the future.
I've heard three different Baptist Ministers say that they'd preach from a jail cell rather than officiate at a same sex "wedding". I believe them.
Take the money and donate it to a conservative cause.
And vice versa.
It was around 1990 that critical mass was reached in terms of new voters registered and the civil disobedience at abortion clinics.
My gut reflections on those times spent mainly in the mainstream media come down like this.
I was a drunk and a coward, viewed with suspicion by my MSM colleagues because my pro-life views were also known along with my disreputable behavior as a drunk.
The first Operation Rescue protest in the area was leaked out to the police and media in advance so I went to the organizers of the second to urge quiet organizing and a call to me at home on Saturday morning when the protest came down.
I was too morally weak to be any good in 1990..
I went to those Promise Keepers things and a lot of bad things were discussed but for me my drunkenness led to many of the problems laid out at those events.
Evangelical Christianity backed away from civil disobedience to protect human life in the 1990’s to hit the more fashionable sins like racism and so on......of course racism is bad, but I think the compulsive addictive behaviors involving alcohol, drugs and sexuality permeate the religious subculture weakening its ability to meaningfully resist evil.
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