Liberals like to say that same-sex couples are the persecuted ones. Jim and Beth Walder can count 80,000 reasons why they're wrong. Thanks to an activist judge, that's how much the Christian couples owes for mistakenly believing that tolerance and equality applied to them. Like dozens of other family businesses, the Walders never thought that their faith would be a liability to their booming bed and breakfast business. They were wrong.
For 13 years, the Walders, did what successful people do, they worked hard to turn their inn into a premier wedding destination and peaceful getaway. Now, the atmosphere is anything but relaxing. Five years into an intense bitter legal battle, the government is demanding that the B&B fork over more than $80,000 to two men who wanted to be married on the property. Jim and Beth had declined the ceremony, because it would have violated their faith to host the event. Like Aaron and Melissa Klein, Barronelle Stutzman, and countless others, the hard-working Christians are learning that there's a price for living by their Christian beliefs -- and it isn't cheap. But, as Jim has said since the beginning, "As long as I own TimberCreek, there will never be a gay marriage at this wedding venue." If that means Illinois shuts down their inn, so be it.
In the end, the Walders insist, "it is better to obey God than men." As far as the majority of Americans are concerned, no one should have to choose between their job and their God! When was the last time a same-sex couple was fined tens of thousands of dollars for being gay? Or hauled into court and stripped of their business? In a country founded on religious liberty, Christians should be able to live and work as openly as the same-sex couples who are harassing them. And thanks to state leaders, Mississippians will soon be able to. Under a hugely popular Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act that just passed the state legislature, no one will have to suffer like the Walders have.
As part of their pushback to this religious discrimination marching through the states, Mississippi officials are guaranteeing that public officials, business owners, faith-based groups, and churches won't be punished by the government just because they hold natural views on marriage, gender, and sexuality. And guess what? Locals support it! Of course, you wouldn't believe that based on the media's spin, but 63 percent of the state -- across age (including 61 percent of 18-34 year-olds!), race, sex, and party lines -- are completely on board with stamping out this state-sponsored persecution. So it stands to reason that leaders like Governor Phil Bryant (R) and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R) would listen to them -- and not the bluff of big business bullies!
Corporations like Nissan, Disney, Intel, and others are only threatening states like Mississippi because they themselves have been threatened by a noisy and intolerant crowd trying to impose their sexual proclivities on the entire nation. And, as we saw in Houston, they have no intentions of following through! The Final Four is about to tip off in the same city where sports leagues kicked and screamed about letting grown men use our daughters' restrooms. (A measure, fortunately, rejected by a landslide of voters.) As Lt. Gov. Dan Forest (R) pointed out on Washington Watch with me yesterday, more than 10 million square feet of office space is under construction after the bathroom bill's repeal. If anything, the economy has only accelerated since the November referendum. And when you press these CEOs, as Forest did, you find out that most of them never even read the bill at issue in the first place!
Speaking of North Carolina, where I traveled yesterday (and the plane was full, I might add, despite Governor Andrew Cuomo's warning), people were overwhelmingly supportive of what Governor McCrory had done. They know, as we do, that protecting religious liberty is America's only real chance at coexistence. "Give them an inch," Forest warned, "and they'll take a mile, especially if they sense any weakness." They prey on weak leaders like Nathan Deal in Georgia, Mike Pence in Indiana and Dennis Daugaard in South Dakota. Fortunately for the people of Texas, North Carolina, and Mississippi, their leaders are refusing to yield on America's First Freedom.
