Agony for evangelicals was the theme of a largely sympathetic New York Times article last week titled, “Split Over Donald Trump and Cut Off by Culture Wars, Evangelicals Despair.”
The piece focused on the plight of Dick and Betty Odgaard of Grimes, Iowa, who faced mild criticism and a small lawsuit when they refused to host a gay wedding at their art gallery/bistro/flower shop/framing service, which had previously been a small church. They settled for a paltry $5,000, but a subsequent decline in business led to the sale of the building to a thriving contemporary evangelical church, Harvest Bible Chapel, where Pastor Ryan Jorgenson preaches the inerrant word of God.
The Odgaards were thereafter ordained “Christian martyrs” and recruited by Ted Cruz to become religious liberty ambassadors, joining a substantial political coalition fighting for the freedom to exercise their religious rights. They and their evangelical friends despair for the loss of the God-fearing, righteous America that was their comfortable home. As the Times reported: “It all flipped, so fast,” said Odgaard, a patrician 70-year-old who favors khakis and boat shoes. “Suddenly, we were in the minority. That was kind of a scary feeling. It makes you wonder where the Christians went.”
The Odgaards and other evangelical Christians interviewed for the article struggle with the presidential election. Donald Trump’s religious bona fides are suspect, but Hillary Clinton is the devil incarnate. What to do, what to do? For Pastor Jorgenson, the distinction is moot. “My hope is not ultimately in the government,” he said. “I am not of this world. Jesus is going to come back. He’s going to bring the perfect government. Until then, we live in a world of sin.”
This portrait of the heartland is like the painting American Gothic, but with a tear in the eye. The world is changing so rapidly and these good, righteous people claim to be victims of secularization and religious discrimination. A local radio host on a station called The Truth suggested, “ … that the Odgaards’ story showed that Americans were developing a double standard on the notion of tolerance. I just wish that this tolerance went across the board for Christian businesses.”
I suppose the Odgaards would be lovely neighbors, if you happen to be white, straight and Christian. Within the cloistered reality of this kind of community, love is probably genuine. But who exactly is being discriminated against?
The campaign for religious liberty is manipulative and illogical. The Odgaards did not suffer from intolerance. The Odgaards displayed intolerance. They and other intolerant Christians don’t lack any freedom to practice religion. They wish for impunity to impose their religion on others. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 classifies their business as a public accommodation. While federal law has not yet caught up to human reality, refusing service to a gay couple is no less discriminatory than refusing service based on race. Discrimination is not a constitutional right.
The faithful are the intolerant. They seek to impose their rigid morality on women’s reproductive choices, by making legal procedures impossible to access. They wish to deny public accommodation to homosexuals. They litigate to evade responsibility to provide full health care to their employees. They press to incorporate religious teachings into public education and public spaces. They bemoan the loss of a Christian nation that never existed.
We should have no sympathy for intolerance, no matter how gentle and gray its agents. Nothing in contemporary politics or policy deprives, or seeks to deprive, religious Americans from practicing and living in accordance with their faith.
They are not coerced into abortion. They are not forced to use contraception. They are not required to entertain gay folks in their homes or their private associations. They are not inhibited from praying night and day, at home, church or in the public square.
As Odgaard plaintively stated, “Suddenly, we were in the minority. That was kind of a scary feeling. It makes you wonder where the Christians went.”
To church, Mr. Odgaard, where religion belongs.
Steve Nelson lives in Sharon and New York City, where he is the head of the Calhoun School, a private school. He can be reached at steve.nelson@calhoun.org.