I haven’t waded into the whole Indiana “religious liberty” law because I’m not clear just what it means. But one thing is clear enough: those who have pushed the law are doing it for one reason and one reason alone: they want to be free to discriminate. I’m with Douglas Laycock that there are actual issues of religious liberty that we should care about. Just the same, the issue is about a man not being able to wear a funny hat at his job rather than a business having to serve Satanist. And even more important, minimum wage workers aren’t safe from firing when they speak to the press.
On 26 March, Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law. And less than a week later, we learned, Indiana Pizza Shop Is First to Publicly Deny Same-Sex Service. The claims made by the family that owns the shop are completely in keeping with what critics of the law have always maintained. The daughter of the owners, Crystal O’Connor, claims, “We’re not discriminating against anyone, that’s just our belief and anyone has the right to believe in anything.” The ignorance of this claim is breathtaking in how it conflates the act of discriminating with the belief that these people in same sex relationships will burn in hell.
Note that there really isn’t any difference between what O’Connor said and what segregationists said in the 1960s. Genesis 9:27 is very clear, “May God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.” African Americans are not supposed to mingle with European Americans, unless they are in suits serving hors d’oeuvres. But that isn’t discrimination. Just because a pizza shop didn’t want to serve black patrons, that’s not discrimination against anyone, that’s just their belief and anyone has the right to believe in anything. Right? Right?!
Well, I suppose that there is one difference: the object of oppression. Then it was African Americans and now it is LGBT Americans. The distinction that people like the O’Connors always make is that one can’t help being an African American but one chooses to be gay. In fact, Crystal’s father Kevin said, “That lifestyle is something they choose. I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual. Why should I be beat over the head to go along with something they choose?” But that’s kind of the opposite of reality. Being “black” is actually just a social construct. Racism is what creates race, not the other way around. I have no idea why any given person is sexually attracted to whom they are.
But I do think it is odd that homophobes like Kevin O’Connor claim that homosexuality is a choice; are they really claiming that the only reason they don’t become gay is out of some sense of obligation to God’s word? Because I have news for them: I’m reliably heterosexual and it has nothing to do with any sense of obligation. But apparently, Kevin O’Connor would abandon his family and move to the Castro if it weren’t for that meddling God telling him not to. Latent homosexual much, Kevin? Regardless, selling pizza for a same sex wedding does not denote approval of same sex marriage; it denotes approval of the one true religion of America: money.
Here’s what I don’t understand. If the O’Connors can’t offend their god by catering a gay wedding, does that mean they can’t similarly offend their god by catering a Buddhist wedding? And what if out of Indianapolis came the Big Gay Church of the Totally Divine God, and its believers thought that God only believed in same sex marriage? Then suddenly we have sincerely held religious beliefs on both sides. Whose “religious freedom” gets trumped?
To me, there is nothing special about religious belief. Everyone has beliefs that they hold dear. The government shouldn’t be in the business of deciding which beliefs are valid and which aren’t. The government has generally had no problem saying to religious people with rites involving banned drugs, “You still aren’t allowed to break our laws on banned drugs.” I’m more than willing to discuss that issue. But I don’t think the “religious freedom” warriors are going to be keen on allowing the Lipan Apache to use peyote, and I know they won’t accept my Big Doped Church of the Totally Stoned God and its belief in compulsory opium use.
Ed Kilgore at Talking Points Memo wrote, Reminder: We’ve Used “Religious Liberty” for Discrimination Before. And I think he sums the whole thing up really well, “Conservative Christians have long been vulnerable to the charge that they offer religious cover for what may be simple resistance to social change…” That’s really what this is all about. I don’t know if Kevin O’Connor is a closeted gay man or not. But I do know that his bigotry toward the LGBT community is not theological in nature. It is a social belief, just like my rather opposite views on the matter.
As has often been said by PR flacks, even bad publicity is good. This little backwoods pizza joint’s sales probably went through the roof the past few days. And there may even have been calls for its owner to run for political office. Thus it is in rural Indiana. Because, freedom.
I think you’ve nailed it. The question is how it will work in the long term. The number of liberals who will avoid the place are probably more numerous than the number of conservatives who will actively seek it out after the initial brouhaha. But most likely, it won’t matter. What bugs me is that the pizza place made its statement to get attention. Do they really get a lot of business catering weddings? Much less same sex weddings? It’s all very silly.