Barronelle Stutzman is the owner of Arlene’s Flowers. When one of her customers, Robert Ingersoll, a homosexual, asked Stutzman to supply the flowers for his upcoming wedding with his male “partner,” she refused. She cited her religious beliefs.
Stutzman never refused Ingersoll service when he ordered flowers for personal use:
“When it came to doing his wedding, I said, ‘I could not do it because of my relationship with Jesus Christ.’ He thanked me and said he respected my opinion. We talked and gave each other a hug and he left,’ she wrote.”
Instead of going elsewhere, Ingersoll sued. The ACLU, the multi-million-dollar fundraising organization, got into the act and joined the suit along with the State of Washington. So a 70-year-old woman who owns a flower shop is being sued by the full power of the state of Washington and an anti-Christian bullying organization that “has net assets of almost 300 million dollars.”
Why should anyone be compelled to sell any service to anyone for any reason? If the KKK had come in to order flowers for an event, do we think Washington’s Attorney General would be bringing a suit? How about a white supremacist group? NAMBLA?
What if an anti-abortion group wanted to purchase flowers from a florist that was fervently pro-abortion and the owner refused the business? Would the ACLU have taken the case?
Homosexuals are the real discriminators. They are the real bullies. Off-the-wall pro-homosexual marriage supporter Michael Kinsley writes in the New Republic:
“DC Comics dropped writer Orson Scott Card’s planned Superman book when thousands signed a petition demanding it because of his many homophobic [sic] remarks.”
Stutzman has decided to counter sue. Alliance Defense Fund’s senior legal counsel Dale Schowengerd states:
“In America, the government is supposed to protect freedom, not use its intolerance for certain viewpoints to intimidate citizens into acting contrary to their faith convictions. Family business owners are constitutionally guaranteed the freedom to live and work according to their beliefs. It is this very freedom that gives America its cherished diversity and protects citizens from state-mandated conformity.”
Too many Americans give into intimidation. They believe it’s their lot in life not to make trouble. Too many Christians misunderstand the Apostle Paul’s message in Romans 13 about “being [in] subjection to the governing authorities” (v. 1). It doesn’t mean being silent or passive when a government goes on the attack.
When Paul was about to be beaten by a Roman soldier, he appealed to his Roman citizenship and was immediately afforded legal protection (Acts 22:25–29). On a later occasion, when some of his fellow-countrymen from Jerusalem brought “many and serious charges against him which they could not prove,” he appealed to Caesar (Acts 25:9–12).
The attitude of many Christians, conservatives, and even libertarians have been opposed to fighting the homosexual agenda by arguing that it’s best to “live and let live” and “not judge.” We should not “impose our morality on other people.”
The worm has turned. Homosexuals who used the “toleration” card to get their foot in the legal door are now slamming it shut on anyone who disagrees with their agenda. There will be a price to pay for opposition.