I also believe in serving people and loving people regardless of their background, their morality, and their faith.
So if I’m a baker of cakes, and someone wants me to bake them a cake, I would do so. I would bake them a cake if it were for a graduation, a birthday party, or any other kind of celebration.
If they wanted a wedding cake, I would bake them one and sell it to them. It wouldn’t matter to me whether I agreed with their morality or their religion or their philosophy or their sexual orientation. It wouldn’t matter to me whether I agreed with the law that gave them the right to marry. Bakeries make cakes and sell them and they can bake cakes for people of other faiths and beliefs without compromising their own integrity.
Sell them the cake and don’t make a big deal out of it.
Photographers take pictures, and they can do so without having to agree with the morality of the subject matter. News photographers take pictures of wars and tragedies. They don’t have to agree with the philosophy of those who waged war to do so. Police photographers take pictures of crime scenes that must make them sick. They’re recording an event, not promoting it. It’s part of their job. They are photographers, not philosophers.
Take the pictures and don’t make a big deal about it.
In the 1970’s, working in my dad’s hardware store, we had a “run” on something we called “alligator” clips but others called “roach” clips. We stocked them for electronic applications, though we knew that they were often used for holding marijuana joints. Should we have refused to sell them because we disagreed (and still do, by the way) with marijuana use? Should we have refused to sell picture frames that were to be used to display pornography? (I was embarrassed more than once by someone who showed me some “artwork” that they wanted framed.) I sold them clips. I sold them frames. (Of course, we did not display their artwork on the walls like we did some of our framing jobs.)
There is a line I would not cross and I expect to have (and I do have) the religious freedom to draw that line. Movie theaters don’t have to show pornographic films. Sign painters don’t have to paint signs that advertise Satanic rituals. Doctors don’t have to perform abortions. Musicians don’t have to play for bands that use profanity. Churches don’t have to perform same-sex weddings when they disagree (as we do) with those unions. Those freedoms are part of the fabric of personal and religious freedom that already exists in our country.
But let’s not carry that freedom too far. Individual believers are promoters of the gospel, and that includes the moral element of the gospel. But we are not enforcers of morality. We live our faith and we teach our faith, but we do not (and cannot) force those beliefs on others. And laws that do so are ineffective and often counter-productive.
I would not turn away a homosexual from our church. (Actually, I would invite him to church and engage him in conversation.) And if I ran a bakery, or a photographic studio, I would not turn him away as a customer.
Bake the cake. Take the pictures. Sell the products. Invite all people to church.
Draw the line on your own personal behavior and your standards, but let’s not draw it too finely when we apply it to others, lest we miss the opportunity to love others and to be like Jesus to them. Jesus Himself was accused of being (in that strange old KJV word) a “winebibber” because he spent time with those who were considered to be ungodly by the Pharisees. Here’s how Luke 7:33-34 records Jesus’ words (in the paraphrased words of The Living Bible), contrasting his behavior with John the Baptist.
“For John the Baptist used to go without food and never took a drop of liquor all his life, and you say, ‘He must be crazy.’ But I eat my food and drink my wine, and you say, ‘What a glutton Jesus is! And he drinks! And has the lowest sort of friends!’ But I am sure you can always justify your inconsistencies.”
I will continue to draw a fine line when it comes to my personal standards. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke marijuana (or anything else.) I’m not a homosexual. I try to be careful about what I watch and where I go. And I will continue to teach what I believe to be the truth and the right.
But I will not judge others too harshly and spend time only with those who agree with me on these things. If I were to do so, I would be in danger of being more like the New Testament Pharisees than like Jesus.
