The Flawed Red Hen Analogy Shows Liberals Still Don't Understand Christian Baker Case
Unlike the Red Hen, Jack Phillips serves all customers. He just doesn't participate in all events.
By Monica Burke Published on June 26, 2018
https://stream.org/flawed-red-hen-an...an-baker-case/
After a Lexington, Virginia, restaurant, the Red Hen, refused service to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday,
commentators on the left immediately seized upon a false analogy.
They likened that incident to the
Masterpiece Cakeshop case, the case of the Christian baker in Colorado who refused to craft a custom cake for a same-sex wedding.
That attempt at an analogy reveals that the left still does not understand the Supreme Court's ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
Jack Phillips, the baker,
serves all customers, but cannot serve all events. He declined to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple not because of their identity, because
he could not communicate a message that violated his religious beliefs.
He even offered the couple any other item in his store.
Meanwhile, the Red Hen denied service to Sanders
precisely because of who she is. They did
not refuse to create a custom order that would have endorsed views they disagreed with.
They denied her service, period.
The false analogy also reveals the hypocrisy of the left's position. They accuse people like Phillips, who serves everyone regardless of who they are, of discrimination, but herald institutions like the Red Hen for denying service because of who someone is.
Robert P. George, a philosopher and Princeton University McCormick chair of jurisprudence, explained the problem with the analogy in tweets:
Robert P. George @McCormickProf
If you want to analogize--even roughly--the Red Hen to Masterpiece Cakeshop, Sarah Sanders has to ask Red Hen to create custom food items for a celebration (perhaps at her church) of the Zero Tolerance policy.
And RH has to be willing to serve her on its premises, sell her off the shelf food items that she can use for any event she likes, and provide custom-designed food items for her for birthday parties, holiday celebrations, and other events that Red Hen's owners don't object to on moral grounds.
4:02 PM - Jun 23, 2018