When religious rights and gay rights conflict, which should give way? Free expression or equal protection?
The Star Barn kerfuffle—a wedding-venue owner permitting only traditional marriages on his property—is just the latest manifestation of this question. Courts around the country and indeed around the world have wrestled with it.
Results vary. The New Mexico Supreme Court, for example, compelled a Christian photographer to take pictures at same-sex ceremonies. An Oregon court went further, fining a bakery $135,000 for declining a wedding cake request and slapping a gag order on its owners, prohibiting them from speaking publicly about their unwillingness to participate in same-sex weddings.
Shortly thereafter, the business closed. In Washington State, a 75-year-old florist is currently facing the loss of her business and her home for the same kind of conscientious objection. Sadder still is that the plaintiff is a longtime friend whom the florist had served for years without incident.
On the flip side, a Kentucky tee-shirt maker successfully defended his decision not to outfit a gay pride parade. A baker in Ireland also won in court after refusing to emblazon a cake with “Support Gay Marriage.”
What does all that mean for The Star Barn?
Well, this is not evangelical Kentucky. Nor is it the Christocentric Emerald Isle. The Star Barn may not fare so well in pale-blue Pennsylvania, in or out of court.
We got a hint of that recently in Bloomsburg when the Christian owner of a bridal shop declined to sell wedding dresses to same-sex couples. With the Town Council poised to strong-arm her into compliance, and with mounting threats to burn down her business and shoot her in the head, she shuttered the place.
Who could blame her? She might as well live in Pyongyang.
The U.S. Supreme Court could have settled the issue in the much-anticipated Masterpiece Cakeshop case last term, but instead they punted, simply instructing lower courts to treat religious belief with the same respect as any other beliefs. They drew no legal lines and as such, erased no battle lines.
So what’s a Commonwealth Christian capitalist to do?
For starters, don’t fall into the trap that The Star Barn just did. It’s the same trap that ensnared the photographer and the florist and the dressmaker.
Even if you think the Constitution says you should win, the moment you deny service, you lose. Relentless, well-funded advocacy groups and some willing accomplices in the media and government are eager to pounce on all things religious. Under pressure, customers may withdraw from you, as is happening with The Star Barn.
Vigilantes may begin posting bogus reviews about you on Yelp and Google, as is happening with The Star Barn. Anonymous thugs may begin to threaten you and your family, and lawyers from both sides will start knocking on your door.
Look it up for yourself. The script is the same almost every time.
Let me suggest a better way for you believers in business: Never deny service to anyone. Always, always, always say you’ll take the job … under one condition. Make it clear up front—ideally on your website and in your other promotional materials—that you’ll donate all the proceeds of such transactions to organizations that are fighting to restore traditional marriage.
There’s not even a whiff of illegality in that. But please hear me clearly. I’m not advocating compromise; I’m advocating cunning.
Chances are, if you create this disclaimer, you’ll avoid the dilemma. Once you’ve made your donation policy clear, customers who don’t like the policy immediately find the door. Actually, if you’re overt enough about it online, they never make it in the door. They’ll patronize one of their many other options instead.
Someday the U.S. Supreme Court may resolve this. Pundits think it might happen with the florist case. We’ll see. But rather than rely on the Justices’ direction, Christian business owners need to rely on Jesus’ direction to “be shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
Turn the dilemma on its head: Say yes to the business you’ll never have to take.
After all, no one wants to violate his or her conscience.
Michael Zigarelli is a resident of Mechanicsburg and a business professor at Messiah College.