Sen. Ted Cruz is in Iowa, where he is kicking off his now-official run for the presidency in the usual Republican way: appealing to the pants-wetting fear of conservatives everywhere that someone, somewhere has different beliefs than they themselves do and that the government is not going to put a proper stop to that. In this case the existential threat is gay Americans and people who think gay Americans ought to have the same lunch-counter rights as anyone else; up with this Ted Cruz
will not put.
Cruz had strong words for business leaders who haven't defended religious freedom laws like the one in Indiana, which has sparked a firestorm of debate.
"The Fortune 500 is running shamelessly to endorse the radical gay marriage agenda over religious liberty to say: 'We will persecute a Christian pastor, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi,' " he said. "Any person of faith is subject to persecution if they dare disagree, if their religious faith parts way from their political commitment to gay marriage."
Of course if any of those three men of faith were to open up an ice cream parlor (bonus points, by the way, for separating "Christian" and "Catholic" into two religious subgroups, presumably to appear that much more inclusive), they would not be allowed to deny service to the other two fellows in the name of
religious liberty. We do not have signs up saying
no Jews allowed, at least in no part of the country I have recently been to, and it is generally accepted that if a black woman or a tall Jewish man or a Japanese-American comes into your place of business you are not allowed to refuse them your commercial services because you suspect they are insufficiently rigorous in their commitment to your own religious faith.
No doubt Ted Cruz would be quick with the retort that this is not about identity, but about not supporting sin, a barb that would become clever only if and when all the pizza parlors of Indiana or florists of Arkansas made their customers fill out surveys as to the fuller range of sins they might have committed in the week or month before arriving to buy a pizza or a bouquet. Have you ever sodomied?, one question might ask. In the last six weeks, have you blasphemed our Lord and Savior? Taken His name in vain? Kept the Sabbath? Are you currently harboring hate in your heart, perhaps hate of strip-mall pizza managers who must survey and analyze the likely post-mortal path of your soul before allowing you to purchase their products? Would you like pepperoni on that?
No, when your entire religion revolves around The Sex Stuff and only The Sex Stuff, I feel for you, but there isn't a business with deep religious convictions in America that refuses service to adulterers or divorcees so thou art shit out of luck on this one. Yes, sometimes in America you have to interact with "sinners." Or people who hath not honored their mother or their father. Or Lutherans. Do try to soldier on.