(Photo: ADF/Screengrab)Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene's Flowers in Richland, Washington, speaks as supporters rally around her in November 2016.
Posted on 07/17/2017 9:19:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
(Photo: ADF/Screengrab)Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene's Flowers in Richland, Washington, speaks as supporters rally around her in November 2016.
Barronelle Stutzman, also known as the "Christian grandmpa florist," is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her appeal to reverse a Washington court's decision earlier this year that found her guilty of discrimination for refusing to provide flowers for a gay wedding.
The Associated Press reported on Sunday that lawyers for Stutzman are claiming that Washington's high court violated her First Amendment protection for artistic expression in its ruling in February.
Alliance Defending Freedom positioned in a post on Friday that Stutzman is taking her "last stand" at the Supreme Court.
"For more than four years, Barronelle has endured the litigation in this case with unwavering grace, humility, and faith — even as she faces losing everything she owns," ADF wrote.
"Now she will take her last stand before the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to preserve her religious freedom and her right not to be forced to speak a message about marriage that violates her beliefs."
The Washington high court agreed with a 2015 Benton County Superior Court decision that fined the florist $1,001 and held her responsible for paying the thousands of dollars in legal fees incurred by Rob Ingersoll and Curt Freed, the gay couple who sued her back in 2013.
Stutzman, the owner of Arlene's Flowers in Richland, Washington, had served Ingersol for close to a decade, but declined to use her talents to create floral arrangements for his same-sex wedding, as it went against her religious beliefs.
In February, Associate Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud argued that the Washington Law against discrimination "does not infringe" on any of Stutzman's constitutional protections.
The decision sparked outrage among Christian conservatives, with David and Jason Benham, two conservative brothers who in 2014 lost out on a HGTV house-flipping show after voicing their stances on marriage and abortion, stating at the time:
"Today, religious liberty was dealt another devastating blow as the Washington state Supreme Court ruled against [72]-year-old florist Barronelle Stutzman. Now is the time to rally to her defense and support her."
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called it a "loss for every American."
"The government should not bully people into violating their conscience," Moore argued on Twitter.
"A [government] that can bully consciences into participating and celebrating what the conscience finds immoral is a [government] that can do *anything.*"
ADF argued that it's "hardly disputed that artistic expression, such as floral art, is speech."
It slammed the state for going after "a 72-year-old grandmother for everything she owns just because what she believes does not fall in line with the state's political agenda."
ADF positioned that the Washington high court's decision was "blatantly unconstitutional," and warned that all American citizens need to be concerned for their freedoms.
In my case they won’t be moving on to anyone else. But they will be helping to feed our hogs.
It is deliberate targeting of a Christian small business.
For years and years we have been told that we must be “tolerant” of this abomination. Now, we see that the goal all along has been enforced acceptance and celebration.
We need to understand who is lined up behind this, and how these laws/rules are put in place. The political left, corporate America, media and Hollywood are “all in” with sexual perversion. The public schools aka Bernie academies are training future generations of voters who will embrace deviancy at the ballot box. We have the means to put a stop to this: boycott the big corporations, and separate our children from public schooling. We are in a culture war and losing badly. Time to step up, fellow Believers.
Prayer is critical, but the people of God are by and large unwilling to make the tough family and personal decisions needed to reverse the societal trend, which is in favor of embracing perversion. Pray, but also DO. We are not guaranteed a positive outcome either way, but it is an incredible witness to others to say “NO...I will not allow the enemy to educate my children”. We are not seeing the forest for the trees. A generation from now, we will have zero religious freedom.
“If anyone ever asks me to make a gay quilt for them I will happily oblige.”
First of all, I HATE that they’ve co-opted G-d’s BEAUTIFUL Rainbow.
Secondly, I’ve thought about how I would handle this situation, had I been asked to do something against my religious beliefs.
I would charge an outrageous sum of money for my services - so much that they’d have to go elsewhere. I’m sure legally my idea is flawed, but it might work!
“I’m sorry! Your wedding date comes up against that of my Niece. I CAN do your flowers, but I’ll have to hire more staff and charge you at least DOUBLE what I normally do, if you want me to take this on for that day. AND, my Niece’s flowers come first, so I can’t guarantee the best quality of flowers for you on that day; you may end up getting seconds and I’ll probably have to do a lot of substitutions from what you initially wanted and have paid for. And that will be 50% up front, too. Cash. Sorry.”
Prayers Up for this BRAVE woman! She is doing G-d’s Work, for sure!
Continued Prayers Up! Go Get ‘Em, Barronelle!
Fags, Trannies & Deviants?
I’m also mad about the rainbow being stolen! So normal people can’t have any rainbow symbols or accessories, lest it appear it’s a gay statement.
Aren’t you also miffed that the word “gay” was stolen? “Sodomite” is more accurate.
Exactly.
RE: Hobby Lobby won by taking it to SCOTUS. Maybe there is hope for Granny?
Everything will hinge on which side of the bed Justice Kennedy (the one who gave this country gay marriage but with some limitations to protect religious freedom) wakes up on in the morning.
RE: How come the Mooselimbs can getaway with this shite?
1) Find me a Muslim baker who also does wedding cakes.
2) Find a gay couple to patronize their service for their “wedding”.
Then we’ll see if they get away with this.
Most likely. :(
That too.
Huh??
Genesis 18:20-21
20. Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21. that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Genesis 19:4-7
4. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.
5. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7. and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
Leviticus niv
18:22 Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
20:13 If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Isaiah 3:9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.
2 Peter 2:13b Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
Ezekiel 16:49-50
49. "`Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
50. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
1. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
3. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
5. if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
6. if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men
8. (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)--
9. if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
10. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
11. yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
12. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
But there IS hope!!!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape...
Simple!
Call them what they are...
I can’t see forcing someone to work against their will.
I refused a call for air conditioning service from a known deadbeat. Am I discriminating? Are all deadbeats entitled to service on their air conditioners?
I refused to change a fan motor on a gas air conditioner. Simple job, but if I laid a wrench on it I was married to it and they were problematical.
Forcing someone to work against their will seems unconstitutional on the face of it.
Forcing a person to do labor against their will, and even moreso against their conscience, is outright slavery. This is not a Free Speech case, this is a (rare but important) 13th Amendment case.
Yep
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
