Will you help me find this person? I have a little money I am willing to donate to an individual running for elected office.
As someone who has always worked for entrepreneurs, I am looking for someone who believes in and can articulate, through words & deeds, that capitalism is the one & only economic system that CAN rescue and HAS lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system ever imagined by man. The crony, state-run capitalism of passing laws or ballot referendums that benefit your campaign contributors or your business or benefit your fellow elected officials & THEIR campaign contributors does not count as participation in free market capitalism.
As a Roman Catholic, I am looking for someone who, like Dennis Prager (courtesy of Jewish Journal) believes in and can articulate the significance of the sexes, echoes the beliefs of Erick Erickson (courtesy of Redstate) that as a condition of US citizenship Christians, Muslims, and Orthodox Jews should not have to surrender the faithful practice of their religion, and is willing to go on offense against the LGBT zealots who threaten to put entrepreneurs out of business.
Oh, you didn’t know about the case of Elane Photography? From the Houston Chronicle by way of the AP:
“A commercial photography business owned by opponents of same-sex marriage violated New Mexico’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to take pictures of a gay couples commitment ceremony, the state’s highest court ruled Thursday.
Elane Hueginen, who owns Elane Photography with her husband and is the business’ principal photographer, refused to photograph the ceremony because it violated her religious beliefs.”
Yes. I refer to Vanessa Willock and the other woman as LGBT zealots.
Yes—ZEALOTS.
Willock and her fellow non-tolerants advocates that as a condition of United States citizenship you must violate your religious beliefs. Judge Richard Bosson agreed when he wrote:
“..in short, I would say to the Huguenins, with the utmost respect: it is the price of citizenship.”
That is LGBT zealotry.
For all their pontificating in the name of “tolerance”, not only were Vanessa Wilcock & her partner ABLE to find another photographer to shoot pictures of the ceremony but, as Erick Erickson of Redstate wrote:
“Vanessa Willock, in an act of spite & retribution, decided to file a discrimination claim and punish Ms. Hueginen for adhering to her religious beliefs.”
As a supporter of the Rule of Law, I am looking for someone who believes that the theory of disparate impact, which according to the Weekly Standard Congress never legislated and did not provide for under the Fair Housing Act” will go down in flames when the Supreme Court takes up the case of Mount Holly Gardens Citizens in Action this fall.
Recall in this post I explained why Sheila Jackson Lee interrupted Darrell Issa: Magner v Gallagher. It is THE case dreaded by the professional race hustler, grievance monger class.
The person I seek must also have the guts to publicly advocate (as Michelle Malkin does) for deportation or incarceration of criminal illegal aliens like this one, this one, the one who murdered 17 year old Jamiel Shaw and don’t forget the criminal illegal alien who killed Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson.
This is round one of my search criteria; round two will follow shortly.
Will you help me find this person?
Her name is Yvonne Larsen.
I recall some years ago when Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC refused to treat equally or accept black students, or unmarried black students, and was denied some federal benefits for the exercise of their sincerely held religious beliefs that God intended blacks and whites to remain separate, but which conflicted with anti-discrimination statutes. It is not so obvious to me, as it apparently is to others, that being present and photographing a ceremony is an endorsement of that event or the philosophy behind it. I have taken lots of photos of Buddhist and animist and Catholic and Orthodox ceremonies and churches during my travels, and never felt that I was endorsing the practices by being present. Where exactly do we draw the line? Would it be OK for a national hotel chain owned by a devout person opposed to gay marriage to refuse to allow a gay couple to book a room there? For a religiously affiliated university or school (Baylor, Duke?) to deny admission to a gay student? or to not allow a gay florist to bid on a contract to decorate for a graduation event?
Yvonne, remember the old adage; if you want something done right, do it yourself. We'll all support you!
Mainstream, you are a person I hold in high esteem. A few thoughts went through my head when I read a little of the publicly available writings on this case. My first thought centered on the photographer and her right to Freedom of Expression. My second thought centered on the photographer’s Freedom of Contract in determining the contract provisions and the right of Ms. Willock to go seek another business to photograph the ceremony. My third centered on Judge Bosson using the phrase “the price of citizenship”. My fourth thought focused on the act of spite & retribution of Ms. Willock and my fifth thought centered on our system of capitalism & the free marketplace. Ms. Willock did indeed benefit from the free marketplace of ideas because she found a photographer with terms Ms. Willock voluntarily consented to. I start from the belief that as an individual of the age ..okay, I am well PAST the age of consent, that I should have the freedom to determine contract provisions…without deceiving the other party I am collaborating with….and ultimately accept the provisions or not…and expect contract performance. I think the Freedom Of Contract should be the general rule..
I believe the free marketplace would eventually decide (by virtue of the hotel’s financial success or failure) if the national hotel chain’s business practice you mentioned was a good business practice to employ. And there are so many different examples applicable to schools, businesses, we could discuss….should a business , through the coercive fist of government, be forced to hire Yvonne as an employee?
The feeling is mutual. I generally share your starting point that a broad freedom to contract is preferable. But “the right to seek another business” when the first one you prefer refuses to deal with you on a basis of discrimination does not seem like much of a right. Blacks always had the right to seek to stay at one of the few all black hotels, or eat at one of the few all black restaurants, or attend one of the segregated schools when they were denied their first choice of each of these.
What makes the photography example a more difficult case is the performance of the contract is so very personal to the photographer as well as to the subjects of the photography, and the idea of coercing a performance is harsh and probably would be counterproductive in some instances. But we expect barbers and nurses and others who provide interactive, personal services to not discriminate on racial and other grounds.
Maybe it is indeed a price of citizenship, of the state enforcing your right to enter contracts, and to collect on the contracts you do enter, that you implicitly or by law agree to treat all customer-citizens with a certain level of equality.