A high school pal of mine posted on Facebook, “…when you start refusing service based on someone’s beliefs you are going down a bad road…”
The Constitution says that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
If a Catholic priest refuses to marry two Missouri Synod Lutherans, isn’t that exactly what he’s doing, refusing service based on someone’s beliefs?
Will the law force him to perform the ceremony?
Or if someone shows up at a Halal butcher shop with a cooler full of pork they want ground into sausage?
Does the shop owner have the right to refuse on religious grounds?
Or will they be required by law to desecrate their equipment, which will probably need to be replaced, and also risk losing some regular customers?
Or if you’re reaching the end of your life and it’s time to let go of your most prized possession: The Harmon Killebrew homer ball you caught at the Met in 1973, which you have advertised for sale on craigslist. A guy shows up to buy it and says he plans to use it in a “pick up” game he’s organizing with his buddies in the field just East of the Mall of America.
“I believe baseballs should be used,” he says, “And I want to play with this ball on the same field Harmon Killebrew did.”
This horrifies you, his plans for your prized possession, because you know it will be destroyed. You’d rather see it go to someone who will treasure it like you have.
Do you have the right to refuse to sell it to him?
What if Heinrich Himmler was magically still alive and showed up wanting to hire me to fly him somewhere? Should I have have the right to refuse on moral grounds? Am I allowed to refuse to serve people who practice genocide? Would it make a difference if he said, “But it’s my religion!” (genocide)?
What if it was O.J. Simpson and I believe he killed his wife? Could I refuse to serve him?
It’s a general principle of law that one can choose with whom one does business.
I have no problem with the Red Rooster refusing service to Sarah Huckabee. I think it’s rude and I think it’s really bad business and an intolerant, no-class thing to do, but I also think they have the right to do this with their own business. We live in a country where the Supreme Court has determined that BURNING THE FLAG is a protected form of free speech, for crying out loud! I agree it’s a slippery slope but one the owner of a business has a right to slide down, if they choose.
And live with the consequences…
Like I’m pretty sure I am never going to have lunch in that establishment, even if I did happen to be in the neighborhood…
I think we, as a society, have lost the plot on the difference between discriminating against someone for things they cannot change (race, age, gender, height, disability, etc.), which is morally wrong, and refusing to do business with someone because of choices they made, which is a fundamental right. (This is the basis of virtually all “boycotts”). We choose our religion and the clubs, political parties, etc. that we join, our careers, and things that we write or say and, conversely, people have the right to react to those choices we make, with their own choices.
I think there’s a gigantic difference between posting a sign that says, “Whites Only” (or Blacks, or Yellows, or Browns, or Reds) and one that says, “Due to our sincere religious beliefs, we cannot make your pork sausages. Thank you for respecting our beliefs.”
But sometimes I think I’m the only one who sees it.
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