Travis Rowley: Can't We All Just Not Get Along?

Travis Rowley: Can't We All Just Not Get Along?

It is at the risk of feeding the absurd premise that homosexuals have somehow been victimized by American society – particularly on par with African-Americans of the civil rights era – that I delve into the controversy surrounding SB 1062, a bill passed by the Arizona Legislature that protects the right of business owners to refuse service based on one’s religious convictions.

Spawning SB 1062 was the anticipation of a potential controversy and lawsuit resulting from an incident similar to what occurred in Oregon, where a bakery refused to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual wedding reception. Or in New Mexico, where a photographer also decided to decline a similar business transaction.

The issue does have value as an academic exercise. It’s a question all liberty-loving people should wrestle with at some point: Should an American businessman have the right to refuse his services?

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

Amidst the contemporary “gay rights” movement, this question may seem crucial. But I try to imagine the American framers pondering such an idea.

I don’t know, Mr. Jefferson. I’m all for this freedom thing. But what if I want to, say, buy a cake. And the baker, for some reason, won’t make it for me. I mean, then what?!

We’re supposed to live in a free society. And the citizens of a free society – unless they’re liberals – are typically quick to learn and adapt to life’s harshest lesson: Life’s not always fair.

The Left could learn a lot from a certain Seinfeld episode. The setting has Jerry and Elaine out to dinner at Poppie’s, a restaurant where they begin to discuss the issue of abortion. When Elaine vows never to do business with anyone who is pro-life, Jerry decides to call the restaurant owner (Poppie) over to the table in order to ask him “where [he stands] on the abortion issue.” After Poppie vehemently defends his pro-life position and declares that “no intelligent person can think differently,” Elaine storms out while informing Poppie that she’s “not coming back!”

Poppie’s response: “You’re not welcome!”

Now that’s the American way.

A Crusade

I was a teenager at the time of this episode’s initial airing. I had no idea at the time that it was the belief of millions of American liberals that it should be the state’s responsibility to mediate the dispute between Elaine and Poppie, and that the Storm Troopers would have to be sent in – pressuring Elaine to continue dining at Poppie’s, and forcing Poppie to serve her.

Of course, that really isn’t the liberal position – because liberal principles vary from issue to issue, depending on what may enhance their political power. But when it comes to “gay marriage” and “gay rights,” the Left is currently on a bullish crusade.

In truth, that’s why the Left won’t allow these scattered incidents to be chalked up as minor scuffles between neighbors.

Of course, a crusade requires a moral platform.

But who – and what – is moral? Who decides?

Within the present discussion, religious liberty and Biblical teachings are at odds with the Church of Liberalism – which stresses “equality” and “tolerance,” while also insisting that the Christian outlook on the homosexual lifestyle is antiquated and immoral itself.

Liberals won’t tolerate other people’s intolerance!

This is the Left’s ongoing paradox, as they spend their lives attempting to eradicate what they perceive as “hatred,” “racism,” “sexism,” and “homophobia.”

This week David Cooley, the owner of The Abbey Food & Bar in West Hollywood, announced that he would add the names of any legislator who supports bills like SB 1062 to a “Deny Entry List.” Cooley also plans to “display headshots of each state representative who supports” this type of legislation.

“I want to send a message to all those people out there who conflate Christian values with discrimination: we don’t want your kind here.” Cooley continued, “I’ve learned that I can’t stop crazy, ignorant or stupid, but I can stop it from coming through my doors.”

Not so fast, Cooley. Not if your progressive friends have their way.

The irony and hypocrisy never seems to strike progressives. Just how fantastic would it be if the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan finds itself with the legal authority to force Cooley to provide space for their annual private fundraiser this year?

No Principles

Anti-conservative bigotry is hardly rare. Moreover, it is much more prominent, forthright, and widespread than any type of hatred for homosexuals. After all, the entire American pop-culture is almost entirely dedicated to glorifying homosexuality, while ridiculing Christianity and American traditions. And we can speak of numerous tales of conservatives being denied employment in places like Hollywood, the media, and college campuses.

Yet, liberals would have to admit that the anti-hippies are impressively chill when it comes to being discriminated against.

Whatever, man. I’ll purchase my bow-ties at the store down the street.

Conversely, progressives would rather have an elite body of government actors attempt to calculate the national morality, and then force the “unenlightened” to perform acts that violate their conscience – a centralized effort that can only be as clumsy as the Left’s attempt to formulate a government-centric economy.

The values and traditions of 330 million people are always varied and evolving.

In fact, what most people don’t realize about SB 1062 is that it is a two-page bill that merely clarifies a standing law that was passed 15 years ago – a law “modeled on the federal act that passed with big bipartisan majorities in the 1990s and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.”

Go figure, liberals are siding with the latest political fad over basic principles of freedom – principles that they fully supported not too long ago.

Of course, progressive Democrats are happy to characterize conservatives who support these pro-liberty measures as “anti-gay” – as if a liberal who supports the free speech of talk radio hosts can be described as “pro-Rush Limbaugh.”

SB 1062

SB 1062 clarifies that the word “person” in the current law applies to businesses, a simple effort to protect business owners from participating in activities that offend their religious sensibilities.

Explaining how SB 1062 had “been egregiously misrepresented by many of its critics,” eleven experts on religious liberty statutes wrote to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) and informed her that the bill before her merely ensures that “before government can burden a person’s religious exercise, the government has to show a compelling justification.”

For instance, if Poppie’s had the only food available in a 100-mile radius, and actually had the power to starve Elaine to death.

As the bill reads, someone who wants the government to “burden a person’s exercise of religion” must demonstrate “a compelling governmental interest,” and also demonstrate that the burden is “the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”

In other words, just shut up and go buy your wedding cake from the bakery down the street. Stop bothering everyone with these petty disputes.

That’s not the American way.

Travis Rowley ( TravisRowley.com ) is the author of The RI Republican: An Indictment of the Rhode Island Left.