This past weekend, I attended the Family Leadership Summit here in Ames. It's a political Christian worldview sort of conference, which bemoans the direction we're heading in, expands on some of the current issues, and exhorts us to get involved. I found it entertaining and I didn't even stay long enough to watch Donald Trump.
One annoying thing was that I was pretty sure I was being profiled. I walk in the door, show them my ticket and get it scanned, and the guy directs me to the table to sign in. Not six feet further another guy is like, "You need to check in," blocking my way toward the rest of the building and point at the table that I'm walking toward. It's not like something that I thought about later and I'm like, "That might have been kind of weird." I was confused right then and just mutter, "Thanks." As in, do you not see me walking toward the table you're pointing at?
We were given lanyards with a tag on the end. It didn't have our name or anything, just a little Family Leadership Summit logo, title, time, website, and smart phone code for that same website. Later we went outside to eat our box lunches and as we were coming in, we were all wearing ours because we were told we wouldn't be allowed back in. Well, my tag had flipped around to the back, so it just looked white, but it was clear I was wearing the same navy blue lanyard with "The Family Leader" printed on it in white, right? "Would you flip that around?" a staff/volunteer asked me as I walked through the door. I smiled wryly and flipped it around. Seriously though, if I'd gone to the trouble of obtaining a lanyard and tag and thought maybe I could sneak in if only I cut out a piece of paper the exact same shape and size as the one everyone else was wearing... don't you think I'd have bothered stealing an actual one?
I don't know. It might be the dreadlocks. And the fact that I was fairly young compared to the rest of the crowd. I could be one of the picketing atheists, a troublemaker, or worse, a Ron Paul libertarian. Got me there, I guess.
I really enjoyed the conference, and I might touch on more of the things I learned and heard there in the days to come, but one thing really stands out to me.
I have a pretty lax "live and let live" social viewpoint. When it comes to gay marriage, I don't really know what to think. I don't care what they do as long as it doesn't infringe anybody else's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Religiously, I don't approve. Politically, I'm a libertarian. Less laws. I could be wrong in this and I realize it is a major Christian and Republican opinion that we need to save marriage. I've also heard that the government doesn't have any business in marriage anyway. I don't know.
However, what really really gets me is when other people aren't so much "live and let live," but they want it their way and they want you to want it their way and give your blessing, regardless of how you feel about it.
Gay marriage. I don't really care. Gays suing cake makers and photographers and people that own a church building because they don't want to patronize gay couples? I care. You and I and homosexuals all know that for every person who doesn't like them, there is another who is willing to tumble head over heels to show their support for the gay lifestyle. And from what I've heard, all the businesses that have turned down homosexuals have done so politely and offered references to other businesses who would not mind doing their service. If it were me, I'd be like, "Oh, ok, that's a bummer. I'll go where I'm wanted." Cause who would want to force a cake maker to make a cake for you when they don't want to?
And I believe that businesses all have the right to refuse service. If you own a business, you should be able to choose what to do with that business. If people don't like what you do, they can find a different business. Simple. If you are mad a business turns you out, you can decry them, post an editorial, raise public opinion or awareness, whatever. It's all about PR. But some people are out to start a fight. They find people who decline based on religious matters and go after them legally. It doesn't matter that you own your own photography business and should be able to choose your clients, we're going to sue you so you no longer have the choice. There might be 50 other cake-makers out there that wouldn't mind doing this for us, but we want it to be all of them. We aren't content for you to have your own opinion. We want your opinion and your business to be and do what we want them to. We aren't content with greater acceptance. We want total acceptance and we're willing to shove the legal process down your throat until you can't ever say another word against us.
Which makes me add air quotes every time someone says we live in a "free" country. Those are private businesses. They aren't infringing on any of your rights. You don't have the right to make a private business do what you want it to do.
Another thing that makes it clear to me is a story I heard about a homosexual couple suing an adoption agency for not letting them adopt. There are other adoption agencies out there that let homosexuals adopt. But they had to go after this one and it ended with the adoption agency closing its doors. What happens to those kids? The couple in their blind quest to make everyone accept them destroyed something that was just supposed to help children.
I wouldn't want to let them adopt either, as they clearly don't care about the children, just making their point.
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