Baylor Professor Francis Beckwith offers for…consideration the following hypothetical: In Nye County, Nevada, prostitution is legal. So, imagine a local photographer in Parumph is asked by the local brothel, the Cherry Patch Ranch, to take photographs of the employees and staff for the establishment’s “Happy Holidays” card. Suppose the photograph is a devout Christian, who not only believes that prostitution is immoral, but that the Season that brothel intends to celebrate by sending out its card is sacred. Should the photographer have the right to turn down the brothel as a client?

Jonathan Merritt , a blogger and journalist, who I’m told is associated with the progressive wing of Evangelical Christianity, recently published a blog post,  MLK [Martin Luther King] would agree with Kirsten Powers on serving same-sex couples.

The upshot of Merritt’s blog is that Christian photographers, bakers, and florists and the like should, (1) as a matter of Christian ethics and morality be willing to offer their services at gay weddings or other such events, since that, according to Kirsten Powers, is what Jesus would do; and  (2) Christians and others should be required by law to serve at “gay weddings” or some similar type event, even if it would violate their conscience to do so.

These are two related although distinct questions. I will leave (1) to others. My focus will be on (2).

Now, I’m generally not concerned with asking questions such as “What would Jesus do?” A resort to that type of  rhetorical question is typically evidence of an immature theological mind, whether the appeal comes from the left or the right.  But since Powers played the “what would Jesus do” card, and since Merritt endorses and defends it, I’ll play along.

The precise issue is whether Jesus would take the job if he were an artist and was offered cash to photograph and paint a picture of a gay or lesbian wedding, or–just to make sure we have the entire LGBT spectrum covered– a special type of bi-sexual threesome ceremony, or a ceremony solemnizing the friendship of the transgendered or whatever other kind of sexual-identity ceremony you can imagine.  I confess to finding the affirmative answer to question  not entirely compelling, but evidently Mr. Merritt and Ms. Powers seem to think it is.  So, for the sake of argument, I’ll concede their point.

In any case, Merritt is not content with simply denouncing Christian photographers and such who do have moral objections to photographing events that would violate conscience. He is after bigger game. He  seems to believe that as a matter of social justice Jesus would have Caesar force his disciples (at least those who are artists) to photograph or paint these events. “When it comes to the American marketplace,” he concludes his commentary, “the ocean of religious convictions stops at the shore of public service.” Merritt clearly approves and endorses this view.

According to Merritt (and Powers) then, not only would Jesus paint or photograph the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender “wedding” ceremony, he would call upon Caesar to force his recalcitrant disciples to do so if they refused.   And since there just may be some kind of sanction for a refusal to do so, Merritt (and Powers) must believe that Jesus would support some kind of penalty–fine, or imprisonment –were his disciples to refuse to paint or photograph those events. Jesus, according to this line of argument, believes that they deserve, as a matter of justice, to be punished by Caesar. (We’ll leave to the side questions related to the degree of the punishment–fine, imprisonment, forcing the business to close, etc.)

Now, one of the most obvious objections to Merritt’s position is that there is something fundamentally different  between laws requiring the owner of certain public accommodations, such as restaurants, gas stations, retail stores and so forth and, on the one hand, and laws that burden a person’s fundamental First Amendment rights to free speech and expression on the other. Those who would recognize this distinction might agree that if Jesus was selling photographs or paintings in his craft store in downtown Jerusalem, he would probably sell them to all sorts of sinners passing by as well as to his disciples. He would sell them to Samaritans as well as the “real” Jews, to women taken in adultery as well as the most pious law abiding Jews.  But there is something relevantly different, the argument goes, between that and forcing someone to participate in, a gay, lesbian transsexual ceremony or a bi-sexual-threesome ceremony or similar type events.

This distinction was suggested by one comment on Merritt’s blog:

Respectfully, I have to disagree with the entire premise. We’re not talking about refusing gays service at a lunch counter or even serving them cake. It’s about compelling someone to use their artistic gifts in a way that violates their sincerely held beliefs. Whether or not you agree with those beliefs, it’s chilling that government may be participating in such coercion. It’s also bothersome to me that those of us who believe in defending the traditional view of marriage are now characterized as bigots. Since MLK didn’t support SSM, was he a bigot as well?

Read More

Read Al Mohler’s commentary on this topic: Caesar, Coercion, and the Christian Conscience: A Dangerous Confusion

Read a commentary on this topic: Against Christian Hypocrisy by Betsy Childs