Posted on 05/26/2015 4:16:04 AM PDT by markomalley
MOUNT PEARL, Newfoundland, May 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) –While North Americans are used to reading about Christian business people being fined and excoriated for refusing to cater to homosexual weddings, Newfoundland has added a novel twist: there a Christian jeweller has been punished financially and deluged with hate mail even though he did do business with a homosexual couple.
Nicole White and Pam Renouf liked the service they got from Esau Jardon of Today’s Jewellers in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador, who took their deposit and proceeded to design and build them two engagement rings. They even recommended the store to friends.
But by the time one friend went there, the Mexican-born Jardon had put up a sign in his shop window marking Mother’s Day—and his strong, traditional Christian beliefs: “The Sanctity of Marriage IS UNDER ATTACK; Help Keep Marriage Between Man & Woman,” it read.
The friend went ballistic. Her picture of the sign went viral. The couple went back on their deal and back to the store, demanding their deposit. Today’s Jewellers’ Facebook page was so deluged with hundreds of hateful emails and many threats that Jardon and his brother, who is his business partner, have to shut it down.
LifeSiteNews asked White if Jardon had been punished enough. “Omigod, yes,” she responded. “Way, way too much.” But earlier she explained to a local newspaper why the couple cancelled their order. “The ring symbolizes love, and just knowing that that’s the sign that they have up there — every time I look at my ring, yes, I’ll think of us, clearly, but also everything we went through. So I don’t want my ring from there anymore. I just want my refund.”
At first, she reported, “They just said that that's their beliefs, and they think they can put up whatever they want. I just said it was very disrespectful, it's very unprofessional and I wanted a refund,” White said. “I have no issues with them believing in what they believe in. I think everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But I don't think they should put their personal beliefs inside their business.”
Jardon, at first, was loath to return it, lest this be seen as an apology for his beliefs. Reached in Toronto, he told the St. John’s Telegram, “When I walk on Church Street in Toronto, where I am right now, and I see [LGBT rainbow flags], and I see a lot of signs and a lot of things on public property, I don't have a problem with them. I accept it. I chose to come to Canada... and we accept the whole package... I don't discriminate against that, nor do I come and tell them to take them down. For the same reason, I ask to have the same respect in return, especially when it's in my own business.”
But what is sauce for the gander is not sauce for the geese, or for the LGBT community that crowded onto the bandwagon, or for the CBC which was all too ready to label the jeweller’s sign “homophobic.”
However, some have offered support and sympathy. Rod Dreher, blogging at The American Conservative, observed that only so-called sexual minorities expected this kind of treatment. “Is a fundamentalist Christian permitted to send her osso buco back to the kitchen if she discovers that homosexual hands cooked it? Of course not. Some delicate snowflakes are more delicate than others.”
Referring to recent decisions by courts and human rights tribunals against Christian vendors who refused to serve homosexuals, Dreher concluded on an ironic note. The pressure on Jardon to return the deposit marked “the next phase in the March of Progress. You must not only bake the cake, or arrange the flowers, or make the ring, you must hold the correct opinion when you do it.”
Jardon defends his right to his own opinion. “One of the reasons my family chose to move to Canada was the rights that it offered, the freedom of religion and freedom of speech, both of which at the time seemed to be very limited in Mexico,” he said.
The jeweler DID what the gays wanted, but he didn’t THINK the way they wanted.
ping
You vill bake zee ceck or face zee konsekvensez!
*keck.
Unless, of course, you're a Muslim. Because then your religion is cool.
Homosexuals are so full of hate. There’s NOTHING “gay” about those bastards.
Homosexuals are so full of hate. There’s NOTHING “gay” about those bastards.
I can't imagine ever allowing other people's thoughts or opinions to have so much control over my life.
If you are Christian and you don’t bake a cake for a gay couple, you should lose your business, be publicly shamed and bankrupted.
Who are you to judge?
If you’re a muslim and you murder a gay couple, well thats just peachy keen.
Who are we to judge?
The “gay” lobby will NEVER GIVE UP!
..........not ‘till you BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP THEM!
(Probably, not even then.)
Punished??? Really??
Soooooooooo, what you're saying is what YOU think is more important than what THEY think.....
The GAYSTAPO would march Christians to the “ovens” if they could.
Homosexuals are publicly tortured, burned, thrown from rooftops by ISIS and the GAYSTAPO in America does NOTHING.
When will they fly to Syria and Iraq and do something about it?
Maybe when our first trannie General leads them
Anyone who thinks the revolution stops at homosexual “marriage” is deluded. Homosexual rights seem to be on the same trajectory as black civil rights. I’m not equating the two, because they’re different. However, homosexualists are making similar arguments.
How often do you see anything racist about blacks? One can barely make truthful generalizations about problems in black communities without being ostracized as a racist.
The homosexualists have the same goal. If you dare say anything even remotely negative about homosexuality, you will be ostracized. There’s no happy middle ground here. Disagree with the homosexuals in the privacy of your own home and you might be OK, but dare speak a contrary word in public? Prepare to be dragged before a hate crimes tribunal.
L Can you imagine this kind of behavior in civil society 100 years ago, in 1915?
Well, no worries - the Muzzies will deal with this sort of thing in the fullness of time...
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