I’ve been getting messages on the Equality facebook page and on my private facebook page asking me what my opinion is on this situation, and situations, both hypothetical and actual, related to this. I’ve been asked where the line is between one’s personal beliefs and living a life they feel is right and projecting one’s personal beliefs on others. I’ve come to learn there are people who discriminate because they’re ignorant and sometimes cruel people, and people who discriminate but honestly feel in their hearts they are doing the right thing. I’ve come to learn there are people who advocate because they truly want to educate others and leave the world a less prejudiced place, and people who advocate because they feel they are somehow superior and anyone who disagrees with them must be hateful. That being said, I am writing this blog to open honest dialect from both sides, those who support the bakers and those who feel the bakery should have been shut down. No one wants to hear a bunch of name calling, etc, from either side.
So, what’s my opinion?
If there were two gay people, or two divorced people, or an interracial couple, or two non-church goers who wanted to be married in a church, and the church leader said no because that church doesn’t support the lifestyle of the couple, I think that church is within their right. I may learn of the church’s decision and that may significantly affect my opinion of the church, positive or negative, but a religious organization should be able to apply that group’s beliefs to the activities that group becomes a part of.
Some feel that absolute ability to not be involved in anything they personally don’t believe in or support should be able to be expressed at their job, too. Let’s examine a few scenarios.
If I’m a Christian science teacher at a public school, should I have the right to refuse to teach evolution to my students because I don’t believe in it?
If I’m a Vegetarian waitress at a restaurant, should I have the right to not serve meat because I don’t believe people should eat animals? (And before you say that’s ridiculous, really think about it. The convictions of most vegetarians are as deeply rooted as the beliefs of a devout religious person.)
If I’m an animal rights activist who firmly believes the general public should not have exotic pets, and I work for a pet store that sells exotic pets as part of their inventory, should I be able to refuse to sell an exotic pet to a potential customer?
If I’m a pro-life/anti-choice person who works as a pharmacist, and an adult aged woman comes to my counter and asks for the morning after pill, should I be able to refuse to complete the transaction because it goes against my personal beliefs?
If I’m a die-hard Philadelphia Phillies fan, and I work for a bank, should I have the right to refuse to wait on anyone who comes in wearing New York Mets attire?
If I’m a Democrat, and I work for a hair salon, should I have the right to refuse a customer who makes it known they support the Republican party?
Should I, as a worker in a business that is not my own, have the right to use my personal convictions when interacting with a customer?
I know the incident at the bakery involved the bakery owners, but most of us are not business owners. Is there any conviction you hold so strongly that you would risk losing your job by bringing it up and standing by it at your job, even though the belief isn’t held by the powers that be at the company you work for?
If I am a Christian, and I work at a bakery, should I have the right to refuse to bake a cake for a gay wedding, or bake an order of cookies for Gay Pride Day or Pagan Pride Day? Should I have the right to refuse to complete an order for the local swingers club?
If I am a person with strong convictions, whether they are based on religious, political, or personal reasons, and I open my own business, where is the line between running my business my way and discrimination?
Let’s assume I am a freelance photographer. I normally do not ask questions to ascertain the character of my clients and their beliefs, but an organization contacts me that I don’t like for one reason or another and wants to hire me. This could play out many ways, but something their organization represents is in conflict with something I believe. Where is the line? The local pageant circuit wants to hire me to take photos at one of their events, but my personal belief is woman shouldn’t be objectified. A local all male group wants me to take photos for one of their events, but I don’t support organizations that exclude an entire sex from its membership roster. A local political group wants to hire me to take photos for an event, but I personally support the other party. I’m a Christian, and the local Pagan Pride Day coordinator wants me to take photos of their event. I’m a non-prejudice person of European decent, and the KKK wants me to take photos of one of their events. You get the idea. At what point is it ok to say this is a group I don’t want to associate with or have my company associated with? If I take that stand and refuse to do business with a group, should that group be able to organize against me and my business?
We see boycotts on a regular basis. Some we don’t care about, some we join the boycott, and some we step up our patronage of a company that’s being boycotted. Gay rights activists boycotted Chik-fila over donations the CEO was making to anti-LGBT groups, and that boycott made many people stay away from the restaurant and it made others go out to eat at Chik-fila more often. We all received the emails about companies that were raising their prices due to expenses related to Obamacare, and that led to boycotts. Animal rights activists boycott products that contain animal by-products or were tested on animals. Many animal lovers boycotted the Philadelphia Eagles when they signed Michael Vick. Many people I know will not cross a picket line at a local super market, even though they are not a member of that union. Most people would prefer to spend their money at businesses that they feel understand them, and when we participate in a boycott, we are saying we would rather that company go out of business if a certain business practice does not change.
So back to the original question, what do I think of the situation with the bakery with Christian owners who refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple? For starters, if it’s true that death threats were made, than those making the threats were in the wrong. Other than that, the owners were discriminating against the couple. I very much doubt that this bakery would refuse services to a heterosexual couple who didn’t go to church or engaged in premarital sex. They were not trying to run a Christian bakery for Christian customers, they were trying to run a bakery for the public. By choosing to discriminate against this couple, they drew a line in the sand, and the public responded. I applauud the efforts of the activists involved in this for taking a stand and following through.
Is there any way I would have agreed with the bakery owners, or with any business owners who only want to serve a portion of the public? Yes. If the bakery qualified every customer by asking what church they went to before accepting the customer’s order, and refusing services to anyone who didn’t attend an approved church regularly, whether they potential customer was trying to buy an expensive wedding cake or a $1 donut. If the bakery said they only wanted to serve Christians as devout as they are, and they sincerely followed through on that policy, then I’d say they didn’t do anything wrong. But if that same gay couple could have been buying pies and other baked goods from this bakery, and the bakery is willing to bake cakes for other couples who don’t share their religious views, than the bakery owners were being prejudice, and they deserve the social and legal consequences coming their way.
Article being discussed: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/09/03/todd-american-dispatch-christian-bakery-closes-after-lgbt-threats-protestsand http://www.katu.com/news/local/Sweet-Cakes-responds-to–222094901.html
