SCOTUS decision undermines freedom for all Americans
July 8, 2023
The decision by the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court last week in favor of an evangelical website designer seeking legal sanction to discriminate against same-sex couples by refusing to create wedding websites for them undermines freedom and equality for all Americans.
The decision is especially a travesty for people of faith — and most especially people who are of a religious minority, such as members of my church, Cathedral of Hope, a congregation of the United Church of Christ, who are members of the LGBTQ community.
The 6-3 decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis opens the door to rampant discrimination by businesses against LGBTQ people under the guise of “religious liberty” and “free speech.”
But make no mistake: Providing Christian-owned businesses the right to discriminate against people because of who they are and who they love isn’t “religious liberty.” It’s right-wing Christian nationalism in action.
Christian nationalism is a political strategy that seeks to hijack the Christian message of love and radical inclusion to promote intolerance, discrimination and even hatred. Its end game is to make America a “Christian” nation through legal court challenges and new laws. This is a far-right political strategy that, in fact, has very little to do with the Jesus of Nazareth who practiced inclusion, acceptance and love.
The Supreme Court ruling, on the last day of Pride month, comes at a moment of crisis for LGBTQ rights in America. More than 520 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country this year — a new record. And almost all of them were pushed by Christian nationalist politicians abusing “faith” to build power for their political agendas, which includes sanctioned discrimination against LGBTQ community members.
“Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.
The case was brought in 2016 by a web designer named Lori Smith, who says that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law might make her design websites for same-sex couples even though she wants to make them only for opposite-sex couples. Her complaint, which cites the Bible as well as case law, says that she believes “God is calling [her] to promote and celebrate His design for marriage … between one man and one woman only.”
At trial, she admitted that she had taken work from a Jewish group before, which showed that she was willing to take work from clients with different religious beliefs from hers, but she said that it would be different to take work from same-sex couples because that would violate her sincerely held religious beliefs.
A district court ruled against Smith in 2019 saying that she lacked legal standing to oppose the law because the state hadn’t actually investigated her, and so she hadn’t been harmed by it — factors usually required in order for a person to claim legal standing to oppose a law.
Smith appealed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and it also ruled against her, 2-1, stating that anti-discrimination laws are essential to maintaining “democratic ideals.”
“We must also consider the grave harms caused when public accommodations discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation,” Judge Mary Beck Briscoe wrote in the majority opinion. “Combating such discrimination is, like individual autonomy, ‘essential’ to our democratic ideals.”
The Supreme Court decision makes a mockery of America’s democratic ideals and the long-fought march toward pluralism.
And, if Christian nationalists have their way, no minority group in America — African Americans, Native Americans, Muslims and others — will be free from intolerance, discrimination and hatred.
Let me be clear where my Christian community stands: We will never ask someone’s political or religious views in order to receive vital services, such as food, haircuts, medical care or the like, which we provide to all who ask.
We will continue to push for LGBTQ equality in both the church and in society, because we know that all people are made in the image of God, no matter who they love.
And, we will love our neighbor even as we push back on Christian nationalism — even when it’s coming from the Supreme Court.
We are, and remain, open to all.
Neil Thomas is the senior pastor of Cathedral of Hope of Dallas, a member congregation of the United Church of Christ. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.