Small business owners and everyday Americans — who are maybe not so average — are taking religious freedom into their own hands, and sometimes they are risking their lives by standing up for their beliefs.
Brian Klawiter, the owner of Dieseltec, an auto repair shop near Grand Rapids, Mich., made it clear he would refuse service to “openly gay” people, but would welcome straight people with guns.
“I would not hesitate to refuse service to an openly gay person or persons. Homosexuality is wrong, period. If you want to argue this fact with me then I will put your vehicle together with all bolts and no nuts and you can see how that works,” Klawiter wrote on the Dieseltec Facebook page.
While gays may be banned, guns are not. He wrote that guns are allowed at Dieseltec “so much so in fact that we will offer a discount if you bring in your gun. (‘On duty’ cops are excluded because thats not their gun, thats my gun bought with my money, off duty absolutely!) [sic]”
Klawiter wrote two days after the first post on Facebook that he would continue to exercise what he sees as his religious freedom despite receiving death threats.
“Listen up folks, If you have an opposing view to mine that IS OK, what is NOT OK is threats to kill me, my family, and friends; threats to burn down my shop and my home. I will stand firm on my views and will not back down.”
In Texas, Joan Cheever has offered a religious freedom defense as she fights a $2,000 fine for feeding the homeless in a San Antonio park. It was her first problem with the law despite having handed out free meals to the poor for the past ten years.
“One of the police officers said, ‘Ma’am, if you want to pray, go to church,’” she told WOAI-TV. “And I said, ‘This is how I pray — when I cook this food and deliver it to the people who are less fortunate.’”
Cheever also made her case on the Facebook page of her nonprofit food truck The Chow Train.
“When I talked to the health department and said WE–THE CHOW TRAIN– are the caterers of the poor, they said, that’s ridiculous. They don’t have a caterer,” Cheever wrote.
“When I said, what is the difference between me bringing food into the park vs. the age old tradition of families camping out and cooking AND serving food on Easter Sunday, they told me – those people are their friends and family.”
The foreskin of a 4-year old boy might be saved in Florida because his mother is using the state’s religious freedom law to stop a circumcision.
Heather Hironimus has filed a civil suit against the boy’s father, claiming the circumcision would be “invasive, irreversible, painful,” and will cause her son, identified as “C.R.N.H,” “physical and psychological harm.”
While the father has said he honestly thought circumcision was “just the normal thing to do,” Hironimus’ suit also points to specific passages in the New Testament and Catholic Church teachings to claim “under the circumstances of this case, imposing circumcision upon [the child] would interfere with his freedom to exercise his religion.”
It isn’t just conservatives and Bible believers who are taking the religious freedom argument to its grass-roots level. The shoe is on the other foot in North Dakota, where a barista has refused service to state politicians who voted against an anti-discrimination law.
North Dakota had a religious freedom law before religious freedom laws were controversial. But North Dakotans have never been able to make it clear the law should not be used as a wedge for discrimination.
When the North Dakota Senate was debating — and then rejecting — a third piece of legislation to make that clear, Joe Curry told the Associated Press he would only allow the state lawmakers who voted against Senate Bill 2279 into his Red Raven Espresso Parlor in Fargo if they were accompanied by a “lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered person.”
The restaurant where this grassroots religious freedom revolution all started, Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Ind., has re-opened. The owner, his family and their employees were forced into hiding after they showed support for Indiana’s religious freedom law.
While they were seen as evil bigots by many on the left of that argument, Kevin and Crystal O’Connor became grass-roots heroes to many on the right.
And those who supported them put their money where their Facebook support was. The O’Connors reportedly collected more than $800,000 in donations.
Brian Klawiter, who said he and his family had been threatened near Grand Rapids, Mich., has refused to take any donations over social media. Klawiter forcefully pointed out Dieseltec is a profitable business and he does not need the help.
Klawiter also took the time to explain the “all bolts and no nuts” line from the first post, to make sure everyone knows he intended no harm and no foul.
“There also seems to be a TON of confusion about one of my comments, the bolt and nut thing was a reference to physiology, bolt penis and nut vagina. I DID NOT threaten to purposely put a vehicle together wrong to harm someone.”
So, despite new polls that show Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s approval rating plummeting and other politicians running for cover, the battle over religious freedom is still being played out across America by people who have the courage of their convictions.
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