Tolerance is for everyone except people of faith

Ashley Verdugo/Staff Writer

“You’re homophobic!” says the “tolerant” left to people of faith. “Homophobic” has become the new word that the left likes to use against people of faith who simply have different opinions on sexuality. It doesn’t matter if a person of faith treats LGBTQ+ individuals with courtesy or respect; once they declare that they don’t agree with LGBTQ+ views on sexuality, the left begins to show their own forms of intolerance.

Tolerance by definition means “the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one doesn’t necessarily agree with.” The left constantly preaches tolerance, yet they can’t tolerate that Christians, Catholics, Jews and Mormons have a different view on sexuality.

There’s religious texts, doctrines and practices that explain why different people of faith have a varying views on sexuality and thanks to the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, each of us have the right to practice our faith. And it’s not up to the left or the government to define whether anyone’s values are acceptable or not.

This message of tolerance that the left preaches applies to everyone except people that practice their faith.

In 2012, Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, citing his faith. In 2017, Phillips ended up in the Supreme Court for practicing his constitutional right to freedom of religion.

Instead of tolerating Phillips’ opinion and faith on how he views sexuality, his religious freedom is being violated. That’s not tolerance; that’s oppression.

The fact that Phillips has to defend his conscious in the highest court of the United States is tyrannical. At the time that the same-sex couple requested the cake, the state of Colorado didn’t recognize same-sex marriage, but Phillips was supposed to recognize their same-sex marriage by law? Same-sex marriage wasn’t law in the state until October of 2014.

Phillips doesn’t make cakes celebrating divorces or Halloween either, but he’s only being attacked for his different view on marriage. Not only were they attacking his freedom of religion, but also his freedom of speech and association. The baker has a private business, but his right to use his skill set and artisterey in the way he would like was being violated.

The fact that this happened in our country is absolutely ridiculous. Phillips’ refusal to make cakes for this couple does not make him homophobic nor does it warrant the situation he was placed in. He has the right to refuse service to someone else, whether it’s based on his religious beliefs and morals or not.

Nobody, not even the government or the left, can force people to go against their conscious and change their mind.

Tolerance means accepting that others have a different opinion than you. It doesn’t mean violating their conscious and freedom, and then calling them names because you don’t feel comfortable with it. Grow up.

It’s 2018 and it’s time for the message of tolerance to apply to people of faith too. Society’s standards change every day, but values don’t and it’s oppressive to force people of faith to change their values based on what society deems its standards are.

It’s simple; people of faith aren’t homophobic — rather, the left is intolerant.

 

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of Panther Press Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

 

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash.

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