Mississippi has passed one of those “religious freedom” bills, protecting the right of merchants who are “people of faith” to refuse service to members of the public whose identities/behaviors offend their tender religious sensibilities. (Translation: gay people.)
In response, a guy named Mitchell Moore, who owns Campbell’s Bakery, started an anti-discrimination campaign, and from the looks of it, he and many other business owners are having some fun with it.
Initially, the campaign created a large window decal proclaiming “We don’t discriminate: If you’re buying, we’re selling.” The decal proved popular with Mississippi businesspeople who remembered that they were in business. Now, Moore has produced a tongue-in-cheek “potential Campbell’s customer survey,” an online list of yes-or-no questions, complete with Biblical references:
Unbelievable as it may seem, some people took the survey literally–prompting Mr. Moore to post the following message to the Bakery’s Facebook page:
The “Potential Customer Questionnaire” is just a spoof folks. There are some people saying that my bakery shouldn’t serve certain people. I think that is RIDICULOUS. We are a business open to the public. The Public includes a TON of people I disagree with. If I only limited selling to people who aren’t sinners I couldn’t even eat my own food. We will sell our product to the public, to sinners, to people we disagree with, to anyone who loves Made From Scratch goods and wants to buy them. That is what we are in business to do.
Wow. Someone who knows the difference between a business and and a church, and actually wants to encourage people to buy his goods! Who’d have thought?
If they aren’t careful, Mr. Moore and his fellow campaigners will give Mississippi a good name.
Amen, Mr. Moore – a rousing Amen to a true American.
Let’s not forget that we have a bakery here in Indianapolis that refuses to bake wedding cakes for same sex couples. While the owners of One 11 Bakery on 16th Street say they do not discriminate, their religion compels them to discriminate against same sex couples when it comes to wedding cakes. Go figure.
Once again the State of MS. proves that it stands for “More Stupidity”! That Law is just silly for a comment! It’s the South, it’s MIssissippi! Mr. Moore, congratulations! All the best for a very prosperous future.
To the people of Mississippi: How can you live with yourselves with such a ignorant belief system? Only people with your beliefs respect you, and your numbers are decreasing. The faster those numbers decrease the better.
While we are on this topic, THANK YOU to Ronald Reagan for doing his wonderful commercials promoting the “Freedom From Religion Foundation” FFRF.ORG
Based in Madison WI (YAY) yet another reason to be proud of the OLD Wis way of thinking about the real world (Pre Walker)
Well, Indiana is the Mississippi of the Midwest and ya’ll know that so somewhere, sometime, this will be a topic there.
Yes, I wonder which one of our idiot legislators is preparing this for introduction into the General Assembly. Lord knows, (pun intended) there are too many of our Republican friends who see nothing wrong with this approach…..I wonder if that unholy troika of Curt Smith, Eric Miller, and that other clown have this draft legislation ready to go. Oh wait, they are obviously too busy drafting the Republican platform.
Following a few links connected with this story, we see that the bill was heading for defeat because legislators were backing off and the Mississippi business community opposed it. Then the Executive Director of the lobbying arm of the Mississippi Southern Baptist Convention, Jimmy Porter, stepped in along with the Supt. of the Mississippi District of the United Pentecostal Church. Mr. Porter’s letter to the members of the Mississippi legislature was nothing but a gross attempt at intimidation, threatening to publicize the ones who voted against the law. (Other denominations and baptist groups opposed the law.) Ironically, he ended the letter with a quote from Jesus, urging them to “be the light of the world”. Well, maybe it’s Mr. Porter’s turn to have the light shining on him, but I don’t think he will appreciate it because, as the writer of John has pointed out (3:19), his deeds were evil. For his letter, see http://www.deepsouthprogressive.com/2014/04/baptist-leader-threatened-gop-reps-retaliation-didnt-pass-anti-gay-bill.html.