The Oregon Constitution allows religious exemptions from laws that are generally applicable, but Avakian ruled that out from the very beginning. Can he really be presumed to be fair and neutral when he said our business was unlawfully discriminating before he had even heard our case?
In the same interview about our case, Avakian revealed what may be his true motive for punishing us: “The goal is to rehabilitate.”
Well, his actions led to the closing of our business. That hardly seems like rehabilitation. But, is it really the state’s job to determine whether or not our religious beliefs need to be rehabilitated?
Aaron and Melissa Klein, “Oregon Forced Us To Close Our Cake Shop. Here’s What The Masterpiece Decision Means For Us.” Daily Signal (June 19, 2018).
Well, the notable Yale Law Professor Tushnet said that the losers in the “culture wars” deserve no mercy. We’ve had it from one of their leading lights that they intend to be Jacobins and Bolsheviks–or at least, in good Rousseauan fashion, compel us to be “free”.
Presumably, Mark Tushnet will be crushing his own daughter in this process? She is a conservative by the standards of our day.
We are in the state of Acts 5:17-41 where the Left is making threats and fining us. By now, they’ve discovered Christians have money because we work and the Oregon bakers paid their fines out of donations. As state and city governments go bankrupt in this pension crisis, we will be therefore an attractive target for “regulators” – a modern-day term for “tax collectors.” Looks like we’re headed towards Acts 12 pretty rapidly. Theodore Beza would probably advise us to take voting more seriously and take refuge in prayer.
Universities Must Choose Between TRUTH Or Social Justice, Not Both— (You may find this presentation via YouTube) Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. His academic specialization is the psychology of morality and moral emotions.
“Data Higher Education Research Institute. This is all departments of professional schools, including agricultural schools, dental schools…. The Blue line is left-far left. The Red line is right-far right. The Purple line in the middle are moderates. As late as the mid-1990s, the professors at U.S. universities had a ratio of Left -Right of only 2-1. 15 years later the ratio was 5-1. 1996: Psychologists were only 4-1, and they always lean liberal. Between mid-90s and 2010 the numbers go up and up and up. By 2016 the ratio was 17-1. This is happening throughout the humanities, the social sciences, and even to some extent the sciences.
This has many profound and threatening implications for students and faculty. For students, what this means is that orthodox views become strongly held, but weakly supported. They actually can’t even justify the beliefs they hold so passionately because they’ve never been challenged. What this means is if anyone even comes close to challenging, it’s very threatening. A phrase they use is ” You are invalidating my existence.” Many students become intellectually fragile for lack of challenge, and that’s why when a controversial speaker comes to the campus they don’t just not go. They don’t argue back. They have to come together to get the speaker banned or they do a protest to drown him or her out.
For faculty, this leads to a miscalculation of effort, loss of rigor in our thinking, fear of descent, and recently in the last 2-3 years, fear of the students. Any university dies if it has political orthodoxy and a mono-culture. An internet meme: “The point is not to merely understand the world, but to change it.” This might be inspiring to the undergrad, but is this why the university exists? The idea is the university is there to challenge privilege and power, and diverse viewpoints and political diversity would just get in the way.
When I showed up in 1981 at Yale, over the doorway was, “Lux et Veritas.” TRUTH was the purpose, the goal, of the university. It was very clear and explicit. But over the time I have been in the academic world, the truth at many schools has been changing to the Marxist one of change. The point of this place is to change the world. Not in general, but social justice in particular.”
Progressives are Fascists/ Bolsheviks, always have been, who have no issue using violence either sanctioned by the state or winked at by the state. Progressives by nature reject truth, that is what progressive denotes.