Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

"I’M A FLORIST, BUT I REFUSED TO DO FLOWERS FOR MY GAY FRIEND'S WEDDING"

I'm familiar with this story, as are most of you.  But the fact that Barronelle Stutzman published this article in the Washington Post May 12th struck me as significant. In her article Stutzman spells out the vicious attack made against her and which continues.   A fair-minded person has to ask, " Is this America?" - And by the way, what does it say about the integrity and "friendship" of her alleged gay friend?  I don't think he comes off well at all.  Stutzman writes:

I’ve been a florist in Richmond, Wash., for more than 30 years. In that time, I’ve developed close relationships with many of my clients.

One of my favorites was Rob Ingersoll. Ingersoll came in often and we’d talk. Like me, he had an artistic eye. I’d try to create really special arrangements for him. I knew he was gay, but it didn’t matter — I enjoyed his company and his creativity.

Then he asked me to create the floral arrangements for his wedding. I love Rob, and I’d always been happy to design for his special days. But there’s something different about a wedding.

Every person in the creative professions regularly has to make decisions about where they lend their artistic talents and which events they will participate in.  For me, it’s never about the person who walks into the shop, but about the message I’m communicating when someone asks me to “say it with flowers.”

KIRSTEN POWERS: HOW LIBERALS RUINED COLLEGE

Powers writes in The Daily Beast:  (HT: mh)

The root of nearly every free-speech infringement on campuses across the country is that someone—almost always a liberal—has been offended or has sniffed out a potential offense in the making. Then, the silencing campaign begins. The offender must be punished, not just for justice’s sake, but also to send the message to anyone else on campus that should he or she stray off the leftist script, they too might find themselves investigated, harassed, ostracized, or even expelled. If the illiberal left can preemptively silence opposing speakers or opposing groups— such as getting a speech or event canceled, or denying campus recognition for a group—even better.

Read the whole article.  I assume it serves as a good introduction to her new book The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech.

THE LEFT'S IDEA OF "TOLERANCE" - "I WILL TOLERATE YOU IF YOU AGREE WITH ME, NOT OTHERWISE"

The Chicago Tribune printed a fascinating story of a girl in a Chicago suburb (Oak Park) who decided to test the reality of "tolerance" among those who preach its virtue most vociferously.  (HT: Michelle Malkin)

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her  school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.

So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:

                              McCain Girl."

"I was just really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters," Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be."    Read on for the result . . .  

William Lane Craig - Tolerance and Certainty in Religion: Are They Mutually Exclusive?

William Lane Craig reports on recent activities in San Diego:

I presented a well-attended lecture on the question “Is Uncertainty a Sound Foundation for Religious Tolerance?”  My target here was certain philosophers who claim that religious tolerance should be based on two factors:  (1) our grasp of moral principles which state that persecution of other religions is wrong and  (2) uncertainty that one’s own religion is true. 

Such philosophers want to foster as much uncertainty about religious beliefs as they can and as much certainty about moral beliefs as they can as a way of increasing tolerance.  I pointed out that this strategy backfires in a number of ways.  In the first place, with respect to a religion like Christianity, which commands us to love our neighbor and even our enemy, it’s not uncertainty but certainty of that religion’s truth that will increase religious toleration. Fostering uncertainty about such a religion will actually decrease people’s motivation to be tolerant.

In fact, for any religion which sees morality as based in God, undermining people’s belief in God will undermine their confidence in the very moral principles which state that persecution is wrong!

In the second place, for people in many of the world religions, like Hinduism or Buddhism,