I'm a piano teacher who teaches lessons at my students' homes, and while driving around from student to student I often to listen to WTVN, the Columbus, Ohio Fox News affiliate radio station.
On weekday afternoons, around the time I'm usually driving, there's a call-in show called Woody and Company during which the host, Woody Johnson, presents topics to his listeners, who then call in and comment with their opinions or personal stories on the topic.
Yesterday afternoon the topic of conversation on Woody and Company was the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because to do so would violate his Christian beliefs.
On weekday afternoons, around the time I'm usually driving, there's a call-in show called Woody and Company during which the host, Woody Johnson, presents topics to his listeners, who then call in and comment with their opinions or personal stories on the topic.
Yesterday afternoon the topic of conversation on Woody and Company was the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because to do so would violate his Christian beliefs.
As WTVN is a conservative radio station with a mostly conservative listening audience - or at least the people who phone in to Woody and Company are - it wasn't surprising that most of the callers that I heard were in agreement with the Supreme Court decision, though some seemed not to understand that this decision was a narrow one based on a technicality - a member of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission apparently made a disparaging remark about the baker's intolerance and so a previous ruling against the baker had to be overturned, go figure - and not a green light for Christian businesses that wished in the future to discriminate against gay customers.
But then there was one caller, and older-sounding guy who spoke with the Southern Ohio twang commonly heard in these parts.
He said that he was a Christian, a conservative, and gay. He said that he was raised in the church and that it's hard. His voice filled with emotion, he said that none of us is perfect, and he wondered why the Colorado baker chose to refuse service only to gays. He asked, what about people who over-eat and are guilty of the sin of gluttony? If a gluttonous person walked into the baker's shop and wanted to buy a cupcake wouldn't selling the cupcake be a sin because it would be feeding that person's gluttony? Divorce is a sin, he pointed out, so what about baking cakes for divorced people? Why single out gays?
The talk show host, while he thought it a great question, didn't offer the man an answer.
So I will.
Master baker Jack Phillips is a bigot who, like so many bigots, drapes himself in a cloak of self-righteousness that he calls his religion and he invokes the name of God to defend his intolerance of people he's been carefully taught to shun.
And in the end, when such a person has been imbued his whole life with the belief that his exclusivity, contemptuousness of and hurtfulness to others are virtues ordained by God, don't expect any rhyme, reason or logic from him, and certainly no empathy.
And in this case no justice, either.
But then there was one caller, and older-sounding guy who spoke with the Southern Ohio twang commonly heard in these parts.
He said that he was a Christian, a conservative, and gay. He said that he was raised in the church and that it's hard. His voice filled with emotion, he said that none of us is perfect, and he wondered why the Colorado baker chose to refuse service only to gays. He asked, what about people who over-eat and are guilty of the sin of gluttony? If a gluttonous person walked into the baker's shop and wanted to buy a cupcake wouldn't selling the cupcake be a sin because it would be feeding that person's gluttony? Divorce is a sin, he pointed out, so what about baking cakes for divorced people? Why single out gays?
The talk show host, while he thought it a great question, didn't offer the man an answer.
So I will.
Master baker Jack Phillips is a bigot who, like so many bigots, drapes himself in a cloak of self-righteousness that he calls his religion and he invokes the name of God to defend his intolerance of people he's been carefully taught to shun.
And in the end, when such a person has been imbued his whole life with the belief that his exclusivity, contemptuousness of and hurtfulness to others are virtues ordained by God, don't expect any rhyme, reason or logic from him, and certainly no empathy.
And in this case no justice, either.
RSS Feed