Posted on 04/12/2015 7:41:10 AM PDT by kanawa
Christians to Gays: We'll Accept Your Business and Donate Your Money to 'Traditional Pro-Family Lobby'
While gay activists are attacking Christian bakeries and wedding planners and filing lawsuits to put them out of business because of their religious beliefs, a Catholic priest has come up with a simple solution that, if adopted nationally, likely could end much of the gay and left-wing offensive in this realm.
Simply, accept all business from gays and tell them that the money will be donated to a traditional pro-family lobby or organization. And if your business is catering, for instance, show up at the gay wedding wearing a Cross necklace, a Bible-pin on your lapel, and a Bible verse embroidered on your uniform that expresses your morality, such as Mark 10:6-7, "But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife."
As Fr. John Zuhlsdorf explains in his Apr. 2 blog post, "It’s time for everyone to calm down. We need a new approach. Think about this. When some homosexual couple comes to your Christian business for services at their immoral event, don’t panic. Go ahead and take their business!"
"Then explain what is going to happen next," says Fr. Z on his popular blog page.
"Tell them that the food and services will be just fine. And then inform them that all of the money that they pay for the services will be donated to a traditional pro-family lobby."
"If it is something like catering, where your employees have to be there to provide services, tell them that all your people will smile, be professional, and everyone of them will be wearing crucifixes and have the Holy Family embroidered on their uniforms," says Fr. Z.
"Then show them pictures of your uniforms," he writes. "When the truck pulls up, speakers will be playing Immaculate Mary. Show them the truck and play the music."
“Oh, you would be offended by that? I’m so sorry," notes Fr. Z. "You approached us because we are Christians. Right? We are happy to provide services for you and we are grateful that you chose to come to our Christian catering business. We just want to be of help.”
The priest continued, "Then tell them that you will take out an ad in the paper to let everyone know what you did with their money, thanking them by name for their business so that you could make the contribution."
"I suspect this approach, if adopted far and wide, would put an end to attacks on Christian businesses," said Fr. Z.
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf is a Catholic priest of the diocese of Velletri-Segni, which is a diocese in Italy close to Rome, headed by Bishop Vincenzo Apicella. Fr. Zuhlsdorf was ordained a priest by St. Pope John Paul II in 1991.
Fr. Zuhlsdorf currently resides in Madison, Wisc., where he serves as president of the Tridentine Mass Society of the Diocese of Madison, under Bishop Robert C. Morlino.
Stick to the basic economic principle of supply and demand. But this kind of thing will help. The customer is always right, but sometimes they need to be right in someone elses store.
They will never keep pastries, cakes, and donuts from the populous. Thats what we have a uniformed police force to insure. (insert donut eating cop here)
Did such an approach work during the Apostles’ day?
Another thing I've never quite understood. Many here believe in the power of prayer. Why not advocate prayer over the goods and services for changed hearts and souls. Not a public display to agitate the gay customers. But in a quiet, but effective way. Let God do his work.
I once say a church sign that we are to be fisher's of men. Our job is to catch them. It's God's job to clean them. A public display often will have the opposite effect.
Stupid idea. All this is about is how democrats want to bash, harass and persecute Christians. They want to give us the business — good and hard
If you don’t have faith that God will find you other work or means, then what else will you compromise merely to keep your living?
Sheep among wolves, remember. The gays are not doing this just to solicit business, and lobbying will not restore the First Amendment any more than lobbying established it in the first place.
“So, what is the difference between Christians catering an imitation homo same sex wedding, and a Christian eating of the sacrifices to idols or to Caesar?”
I’m not sure I see the comparison but didn’t Paul say it was okay to eat meat sacrificed to idols as long as it wasn’t a scandal or led others to sin? I think the problem was that all the butchers were required back then to sacrifice to idols sort of like prayers said by muslim or orthodox Jewish butchers now. So unless one ate of the meat butchered by the pagan butchers, one didn’t eat.
very good idea
Until they are ready to accept the message, the message will fall on deaf ears. You know, the old you can lead a horse to water routine.
Too much salt and too much light can be corrosive and blinding.
Christians/Conservatives have so far totally lost the PR battle, which is ultimately all it is. This would shut them down so fast, their heads would spin.
Great idea by Fr Z.
Rather, they’d double down and claim it a victory against Christians, claiming them to be hypocrites. These really are those with the totalitarian mindset that people like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoke of.
I agree with you. This is a silly and dangerous game. Why can’t we just assert our first amendment rights and not give in or compromise?
What if this were about not being allowed to bring a concealed weapon to wedding? Would we say, “okay, but all the money I make off your event I’m donating to GOA”? I have my doubts.
If all the money earned is donated away, where's is the profit?
especially in the name of some cause that may be against your beliefs
The money earned would not be in the name of some cause that may be against your belief
but rather in the name of some cause that conforms to your belief.
Because you are upfront about your catering,
in effect the cause that may be against your belief
is donating money to the cause that conforms to your belief.
Has such a thing ever worked towards the reversal of permitting abortions? Forty-two years and counting on that one.
I didn’t raise the matter of “profit”; I initially said “Mammon”.
Freedoms cannot be lobbied for. Christianity in the USA is currently against a similar enemy they faced in the USSR and currently face in the PRC. Lobbying won’t stop the push to drive religion underground.
Or refuse to accept any business from gays and the problem is solved.
Most of these businesses are small. I suspect they operate on a thin profit margin. It's easy for people to tell someone else to give away their money when those people don't have any skin in the game.
I do not care for the idea of giving the LGBT lobby the power to destroy a business.
I can easily see a months-long parade of such arrangements, deliberately arranged to deprive the business of enough money to be worthwhile unless the owner reneges on the vow to donate the money. If the owner decides to keep what they said they would donate, then a lawsuit by past customers whose money was donated would be forthcoming, on the basis of disparate treatment.
It’s all garbage, but that is what I foresee if this tactic is taken. I know others have differing opinions.
No it isn't. It's accepting without contest the assertion that a pervert can demand that I participate in his pathology, that his sickness is more socially important than my deeply held beliefs.
The Constitution -- in the very first amendment -- protects the right to the free exercise of religion. NOWHERE does it protect the right to be queer. We shouldn't have to trick the law to exercise our rights.
Besides, as another poster pointed out, using this tactic just concedes one more piece of high ground. The Left's plan has always been incremental ... inches, not miles. This gives them that inch, and encourages them to come after more.
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