I've written before that there is a difference between refusing to serve a gay couple at your restaruant and declining to cater a gay wedding. How that difference, largely unacknowledged now, is handled will deteremine how well religous libery advocates and and anti-discrimination advocates are going to be able to accommodate each other.
Now comes a new wrinkle:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released an opinion tonight stating that county clerks in the state will not have to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples if doing so violates their religious beliefs:
This seems to me closer to the refusing-restaurant-patrons end of the spectrum. Licenses are issued on behalf of the state, not the individuals in the clerk's office, so it is up to each county to issue a license to anyone who wants to marry. If the clerk is unwilling to issue it because of religious convictions, someone else in the office can. The county's legal obligation has been met and the clerk has not violated his beliefs. I've mentioned this before (see earlier post about tatto artists), but it's like the situation with an editorial page. It belongs to the publisher, not me, so if he wants an editorial written I can't agree with, we get someone else to write it. He got his say on his page, and I didn't have to write something I didn't believe.
On the other hand, there is this:
When you block all normal means of dissent, whether by ignoring the political will of you opponents or using the media to mock and abuse them, you build up the pressure. In 30+ years as an active conservative, I’ve never heard people so angry, so frustrated, so fed up. These emotions are supposed to be dissipated by normal political processes. But liberals are bottling them up. And they will blow. It’s only a matter of how.
Liberals need to understand the reality that rarely penetrates their bubble. Non-liberal Americans (it’s more than just conservatives who are under the liberal establishment’s heel) are the majority of this country. They hold power in many states and regions in unprecedented majorities. And these attacks focus on what they hold dearest – their religion, their families and their freedom.
What is the end game, liberals? Do you expect these people you despise to just take it? Do you think they’ll just shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, I guess we better comply?” Do you even know any real Americans? Do you think you’ll somehow be able to force them into obedience – for what is government power but force – after someone finally says “Enough?”
Opposition from religious belief can be handled, as long as advocates of the new reality are sensible and gracious about it. But if we get to that "Enough!" moment, all bets are off.
