As is the case with many hot button issues in our world, the situation with Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana causes a knee-jerk reaction in many of us. It certainly did with me. How DARE they discriminate against that couple! Why, the outrage was REAL!!!
But before people started boycotting their restaurant and such, maybe we should study what we are asking of them more closely because the situation isn't as easy as it might seem.
DISCLAIMER: Before anyone gets his/her panties all in a bunch, I'm only trying to show where the holes are in our logic. I'm not agreeing with the O'Connors' beliefs or espousing them myself. Everyone should know by now where I stand on gay marriage and homosexuality in general, but I HAVE to show you guys the can of worms we are opening here.
OK. So people seem to want the pizza place to be FORCED to cater a gay wedding. Even though it flies in the face of the religious beliefs of the people who own the restaurant. Sure OK, I hear you. You want to compare it to racial discrimination and not being able to sit at the lunch counter, etc. The first question that pops into my mind is this: Why would you want someone to cater your wedding who doesn't WANT to? I know that makes me sound like someone who has never suffered discrimination, and for the most part, that is true. It is the principle of it, I understand.
But now for something a little more pertinent: This gay couple is asking the proprietors of said restaurant to indirectly take part in a religious ceremony (even if the couple doesn't see it as a religious ceremony, most Christians see marriage as a religious rite sanctioned by God...a covenant before God...a sacrament) which is DIRECTLY in opposition with their beliefs. To "participate" in a religious ceremony that to some people amounts to near heresy. Just because we might believe that their beliefs are WRONG doesn't mean they can't have them. And those beliefs are protected under the Constitution. Now I get it that a business is not really supposed to have a faith....but the Hobby Lobby decision muddies those waters considerably.
The O'Connors have been very honest about what they believe. They do NOT discriminate against anyone who enters their restaurant to eat-all are welcome, but they don't want to be forced to participate in a gay wedding, even indirectly. Mr. O'Connor has stated that if he had a gay child, he would love that child but would NOT attend his/her wedding. And he has a right to hold those beliefs.
But now to the REAL CRUX of the matter: What will it really mean if businesses are forced to provide services to gay couples? OK HERE'S what it will mean. If companies cannot decline services based on religious beliefs, then if the Westboro Baptist Church people show up on your doorstep and want you to cater a huge anti-gay rally, you will HAVE to do it. If someone walks into your bakery and orders a cake that says, "Congratulations on your abortion; now you are going to hell", you will HAVE to make it. If you are a wedding planner and someone wants you to plan a satanist wedding complete with pentagrams and goat blood, you will HAVE to do it. It might even mean that if you are a Muslim or Jewish caterer, you might have to make and serve pork. I know those examples are ridiculous, but I'm using something extreme to show where this can go.
I HATE the idea that gay couples are being discriminated against because I don't really understand why everyone can't just live and let live. But problems arise when people want to protect ONE group, but sneer at others. I want to sneer at those groups too; they disgust me. But once we make a law about something, we will not be able to cherry pick to whom it will apply. And that isn't GOOD OR BAD...just equal. We have to be ready to trample people's beliefs equally...not JUST fundamentalist Christians. This is a much more complicated issue than just gay marriage.
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