Memories Pizza Refuses To Cater Gay Wedding; Right or Wrong? A Christian Perspective.

You’ve already heard this story, right?  The story about the little pizza place that said they would refuse to cater a gay wedding based on religious grounds.  Well, I’ll just throw this right out there…. I do not agree with them.  There, I said it.  And now, of course, here are my thoughts and opinions on the matter.

The biggest questions I have are these:  Do the owner’s of Memories Pizza check the morality of everyone that walks through their door?  If they have catered other events, did they check with those people to insure they met all their religious standards?  Obviously, you can see where I’m going with this line of questioning.

The bottom line is this:  Just because you cater a gay wedding does not mean you agree with their sexual orientation, nor does it mean you have sinned if you do cater it.  And after all, Jesus ate with prostitutes and sinners!  And I suspect that if they offered him money, he took that too!

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  ~Matthew 9:10-13 (NIV)

I don’t agree with homosexuality, nor believe in gay marriage, but that doesn’t mean I would turn my back on them or even avoid them.   (If you’ve read any of my blogs, you already know that I have spoken at length about homosexuality, and have gay friends myself.  If you haven’t, you can check them out here and here.)  And if an occasion arose for me to minister to anyone at the wedding, I certainly would have!  But to turn them down outright just because the owners did not agree with them being gay or believe in a gay marriage was just wrong.

Now, that all being said, I will add one more thought to this whole thing;  I believe that any business should be able to turn anyone away for any reason.  I know most of you wouldn’t go as far as to agree with that and some might call me ‘racist’ just for saying it.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  I say that because when you enter a privately-owned business, that’s just it… you are inside an establishment owned by an individual(s) and it is private.  That individual(s) should have the right to choose not to serve someone for any reason.  If they choose to discriminate, I ASSURE YOU, they won’t be open long!  The local community will see to that.  But my point is that they should still HAVE THAT RIGHT.

Furthermore, we have discrimination still going on today.  It never left.  If this little pizza parlor in Indiana had been Muslim-owned, and they refused to cater due to their religious reasons, this story would never have been told.  Their refusal would have been happily accepted.  But the devil has seen to it that Christians are hated for, well…. just being Christian.  While Muslims, who also do NOT agree with homosexuality, are not held to the same standard as Christians.  According to the WikiIslam:  “The Islamic views on homosexuality are formed from the writings of the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad‘s Sunnah. It is not only a sin, but a crime under Islamic law.”  The punishment is, most often, varying forms of death.  DEATH.  Death for being gay.  YES, that is the TRUTH of what Islamic Law says!  And yet Islam is accepted but Christianity is no longer tolerated, even though we Christians LOVE all sinners and wish none of them death.  Yes friends, that is the world today.

I got a little off on a tangent there, but I think I made all my points.  You’ve heard the saying widely spoken among Christians to “love the sinner and hate the sin.”  Well, that is still true today.  You can love someone and still disagree with their actions.  There is no reason to not have gay friends and love gay family members.  To be friends with or love a sinner doesn’t mean you agree with their actions.  And of course, remember that none of us are free from sin.  

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  ~Romans 3:23