There must be more to the story. Yes, a bit. But this is the
basic truth of it. (Read more here and here.)
 |
| Photo originally screen capture from website, found in this story |
The New York couple, Robert and Cynthia Gifford, own a
family farm. As you might imagine, making a living from a family farm is
tenuous. But the location is rustically scenic. So they do additional business
by allowing events there. These include various kinds of events: business
parties, school events, birthday parties, and sometimes weddings and
receptions.
The main covered venue is a large barn, above which is the couple’s
living space, where they are raising their two children. When the Giffords
consent to do a wedding, they do the decorating, the food, the setup…. Some
events they are less involved in, including receptions elsewhere on the
property. But a wedding, in their home—their rustic barn home—is something they
take on as a partnership with the couple being married.
You can imagine they can’t take on that kind of event every
day. They have to want to celebrate
with the couple. After all, this is in their home, and it’s taking up their
life and livelihood for some significant amount of time.
So, along comes a lesbian couple who want their wedding in
the barn/home. The Giffords are religious Christians. They are not comfortable
putting their heart and soul into something that goes against their belief in
traditional marriage. So they suggest lesser services, such as a reception on
the grounds. Not good enough. The lesbians insist they want the whole shebang or
nothing. So the farm owners shrug their shoulders and say they’re sorry they
can’t help.
What would a tolerant engaged couple do? Respect the kindly
and respectfully offered decision, and go find another venue. Not this couple.
They insist it is their right to force this farm family to open their home and
give them the full-service wedding. Or else! And the or else was a lawsuit. With a liberal judge, who thinks it’s OK to
enslave someone into servitude, not just in their own business but, in this
case, in their own home. He gets away with this travesty by claiming the lesbian
couple is “suffering” intolerance from the farm owners.
The entire exchange happened in a “recorded” three-minute
phonecall.
I have handled wedding events for all three of my children,
with receptions in Texas and out of state. These required a lot of phonecalls,
plus some in-person visits. I never once considered recording a phonecall. Why
would I? If service couldn’t (or wouldn’t) be rendered by a particular vendor,
I’d simply go elsewhere. And if there were details that needed to be
remembered, I wrote notes, followed up with emails, or called again to clarify.
I think that’s normal.
There was a business that turned us away, with prejudice.
This was some months before daughter Social Sphere’s wedding. Just a couple of
weeks afterward was the wedding of my daughter-in-law’s sister, who has long
been a friend of Social Sphere. So the girls all got together, over Christmas
break, to do some wedding exploration. Between our houses (about 40 miles
apart) there’s a business we see from the freeway that does wedding-related
business. We hadn’t ever been inside, so I wasn’t sure if they did dresses, had
a reception venue, provided decorations for your venue, or a variety of other
services. So I suggested the girls stop in and find out what they offered. They
had granddaughter Little Political Sphere with them, at age 2 ½. She can be a
handful, but at the time was clean and fed and under control. I think an older
sister, with babe in arms, was also helping. The proprietor came up to these
girls—two of them wearing engagement rings and ready to explore all kinds of
wedding spending—and sent them out of the place because they had children with
them. Talk about prejudice. We think that the proprietor didn’t believe the
girls were seriously shopping. But the message was clear: people like you
(people who have the nerve to bring a child with them) are not welcome here.
So, Weddings by Debbie, in Katy, Texas, gets no recommendation or business from us.
Ever. In fact, after knowing how strongly they preferred not to do business
with us, I wouldn’t want their services. The idea of forcing them to do
something for us, through the courts, never came up.
The fact that it came up for Jenny McCarthy and Melissa
Erwin, after a brief—recorded—phonecall, leads me to believe they were seeking
a chance for a lawsuit more than then were seeking a lovely, rustic wedding
venue.
What we don’t know is how many venues they contacted before
they could find one that would offend them suitably for a lawsuit.
The fines might not put the Giffords out of business, but
that is a risk. And in their case, losing the business could mean losing their
home. Their options are to appeal to the state Supreme Court, or to countersue
for violation of their religious freedoms. Either of those options requires
money, which they may not have access to. Another consideration is hiring an
event planner to separate them from participating in any event they might not
want to be involved in. This would also cost them.
None of their options—for living their lives according to
valid religious beliefs, in their business and in their home—is easy or
inexpensive.
But it’s better than being beheaded, right? Yes. ISIS is
moving through the Middle East, summarily executing anyone who holds religious
beliefs not meeting ISIS approval. They don’t tolerate dissent.
Neither do the lesbian couple and the New York Judge. If
execution were an optional punishment for failure to agree with the homosexual
agenda, would they seek it? I don’t know. I hope not. But enslaving someone into
service in their own home—because of the pain and anguish you suffered from a
three-minute phonecall in which they said they were willing to serve you in
other ways—is pretty spiteful. It is not, by any stretch, tolerant.
In the Spherical Model world, honoring family and living
according to the Ten Commandments are two components necessary for freedom,
prosperity, and civilization, found in the northern hemisphere. Tolerance where there is disagreement, and
respect toward all people is part of civilization. Forcing someone to violate
their religion is southern hemisphere savagery. ISIS is clearly savage. The
difference between their intolerance and that of the Giffords’ opponents is a
matter of degree. The more savagery is tolerated, the more
civilization deteriorates into more severe savagery. There is no civilization to
be found going in that direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment