free enterprise

[Douglas <dougwils@moscow.com>]

Dear visionaries,

Just got back from Santa Cruz. The folks down there make our local Moscow 
progressives look like mossback conservatives. It is a pleasure to be back. 
That said . . .

Rosemary Huskey detected a whiff of Lester Maddox in my defense of the 
property rights of business owners. Alan Partridge did much the same. 
Rosemary said, "He [Maddox] staked this private property "right" on exactly 
the same philosophical grounds that Doug argues in his post."

(Writer of this post rubs his forehead wearily.)

What does a liberal, progressive free speech advocate do? He argues for 
free speech on exactly the same philosophical grounds that a neo-Nazi does. 
"I may not agree with what you do say but will fight to the death for your 
right to say it." You all agree with that? Of course you do; it is one of 
your hallowed cliches. The ACLU does a regular fan dance with it. Now, what 
could be your problem with "I may not agree with what you do with your 
restaurant but will fight to the death for your right to do it"? The 
question is whether bigotry ought to be a crime with attendant civil 
penalties. It is not a debate over whether it is a sin. You can support 
someone's right to speak without agreeing with the content of his speech. 
You can support someone's right to run a restaurant the way he wants 
without agreeing with the way he runs it.

I pastor a church, and am a resident of Moscow. The nature of civil and 
church governments differ. If one of my fellow Moscow citizens refused to 
serve blacks on racist grounds in his restaurant, I do not think we should 
pass a law forbidding him to be such a jerk. But if one of the members of 
the church refused to serve blacks on racist grounds, he would soon find 
himself in the process of church discipline. I grew up in a segregated 
city, and it is a point of honor with me that our family had nothing to do 
with the racist nonsense surrounding us. I attended an all-white government 
elementary school -- and after integration, I went to a racially mixed (and 
volatile) middle school because my family refused to participate in the 
white flight. My sister was the only white child in her grade. So give me a 
break, all you liberal residents of Little Norway, and quit trying to 
change the subject. Disapproval of homosexuality on moral grounds is one 
thing. And I do disapprove. Disapproval of blacks on scripturally ignorant 
grounds is quite another. (Quick joke: What is a good pick-up line at a 
white supremacist convention? "Hey, nice tooth!")

Short form:
I believe in racial harmony because the Scriptures require it in multiple 
places, and we are taught that Christ is the only possible hope for such 
harmony. I also believe that homosexuality is a sin that should be repented 
of because (those same) Scriptures teach this. In short, I am a Christian 
who believes the Bible, straight up. Do I get to run my restaurant as such 
a Christian? Or must I submit my restaurant to the dictates of an alien 
faith? When do I have to report to the re-education center?