It's usually a matter of time, but reality typically catches up to reveal the truth. Two news stories demonstrate what many know to be a double standard when it comes to "rights."
Remember the protests leveled against the Oregon bakery owners who had previously served all patrons irrespective of race, gender, sexual preference, socioeconomics, etc., yet were fined $135,000 by a state court and were forced to close their business out of financial hardship when they practiced their Christian beliefs?
Robin SmithSure you do. In 2013, Melissa and Aaron Klein explained to a lesbian couple that, while their business was otherwise welcome at their bakery, baking a wedding cake was, in their eyes, participating in a ceremony that, in their Christian faith, was to be held sacred for the covenant union of a man and a woman. Despite an appeal, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled in December that the couple not only "violated a law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation in places that serve the public," according to the Dec. 28 Oregonian article, but did not, as argued, infringe upon their own right of free speech or freedom of religion.
The Christian couple argued, as have subsequent cases, that the state was compelling them to engage in speech they otherwise would remain silent upon or speak against in opposition. But, the left-leaning court ruled otherwise. A similar case of a Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, is now before the Supreme Court, with a ruling expected this summer.
Involved in the specifics of those incidences are the First Amendment rights involving both the freedom to exercise one's religion and the freedom of speech.
But, oh, what a funny thing time can be. Imagine hearing the squeal of brakes right now.
Just last week, a ruling in Manhattan supported the owner of The Happiest Hour, a New York City bar, who argued that "only religious, and not political, beliefs are protected under state and city discrimination laws" that allowed her to kick out Trump supporters from her West Village establishment in January 2017.
Wearing Trump gear that celebrated the hope that new President Donald J. Trump would "Make America Great Again," Philadelphia accountant Greg Piatek was given rude service at the watering hole. His request for better service got him and his pals removed from the premises. Piatek sued in the Manhattan Supreme Court, only to be given an unfavorable ruling after failing to establish that his support of Trump was not protected speech.
Apparently, he would've had to prove his faith was tied to the wearing of the red ball cap now synonymous with Trump. "Here the claim that plaintiff was not served and eventually escorted out of the bar because of his perceived support for President Trump is not outrageous conduct," Justice David Cohen ruled, according to the account reported in the New York Post.
Got that? If you're a Christian living by the teachings in Holy Scripture that are believed to be God-inspired, you're a bigot and your rights of freedom of religion are ignored. If you're a guy wearing a Trump hat cheering to "Make America Great Again," your political speech is not protected unless you prove it's tied to your religion. What world are we in?
Yeah, keep telling yourself that we can trust activists and adherents whose use of the Constitution is perverted by regularly denying law-abiding, God-fearing Americans their rights but who create their own standards to protect their political ideology.
Robin Smith, a former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party, owns Rivers Edge Alliance.