Last night I ended up in a fight with liberals over the Arizona laws. They argued that any law which allows a religious defense of exclusion as illegitimate: they celebrated that the law was vetoed, and thought that the US civil rights act — which regulates businesses and requires them to serve anybody — is a good thing.
I don’t.
I think that businesses should be allowed to discriminate, just as most clients or customers can choose to take their business elsewhere. The one exception would be if there is a monopoly or monopsony — where there is a place for regulation as people must deal with that firm.
But the progressives are not accepting that Christian will judge within the church — or that we have firm beliefa, so oppression is coming because of an ideology called equality
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children — “My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; 6for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.” 7Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. 9Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. 11Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
14Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
If you live long enough, something bad will happen to you: for in the end we all die. Often what happens to us is not our fault, but is caused by others, with malicious intent.
Yet we are told to strengthen ourselves and pursue righteousness. It is a bit of a cliche but it is true that although we are not responsible for what happened to us, nor should we have guilt for that, yet we are still responsible for our behaviour now. If we are injured, we have to look after ourselves and deal with the pain and inconvenience.
If we have scars from deep harm (done to us or done by us) we still have to deal with the fallout. We still have to clean up the mess in our lives and choose to do good this day.
Being labelled a victim or getting a PC priveledge card will not help. Doing our duty will. And in these times, cling close to Christ, who gave his all for us.
For we are going to be shunned, and we may have to choose to give all for him.
The OB who delivered my babies went all the way to the CA supreme court (and lost) as having not discriminated against a pair of lesbians prior to their marriage being legal in CA – the policy of the group was not to artificially inseminate the unmarried. This was some years ago. Courteous gentleman to his toes.
Note: He offered to pay for her to see another OB, as her insurance only covered his practice. Out of his pocket. That wasn’t acceptable. I saw a picture of them with her children… four children… so obviously she managed to work around his unwillingness to do something against his faith. Still, she sued. She won.
Had I been the judge, I’d have laughed her out of court. MOST of the people I hear about being sued in like manner were equally courteous to their customers, serving them in all occasions where it didn’t force them to break their faith. Cookies? Yes. Wedding cakes? No. Referring them to the competition, often offering to pay.
My snarky side wants to see if we can send the neo-Nazis to order tshirts from gay tshirt companies… but that’s not Christian. This is what’s meant by “turn the other cheek” imo .
I wonder how quickly Christians will start to leave businesses catering to the public.