Private Property

Luke 12:48

But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

I endeavor in this blog to not just take on sweet themes. Instead, I delve into difficult issues and try to make sense, as well as I can, with a spirit of Truth tempered by Grace.  Yet, Truth--if it is Truth--is universally applies to all. Take for instance, when Christians state that their religious freedom is being violated. But, we then go ahead a presume that we have a right to violate others' religious freedom.

First, I need to step back a bit to make a general observation. Some Christians writers seem to avoid the complexity of it all and string together a string of clichés like a cheap and gaudy necklace with a shiny faux silver-coating of Christian-speak. These writers are popular...I am building one loyal reader at a time. But I don't write for the crowd, for often the crowd is just following someone who is following someone with little reflection why they all are going in a certain direction. If I get to be more popular, it won't because I toned it down. When we are trite and shallow, it gives the impression that Christianity offers no real analysis of the difficult issues of the day. Or, if we do take something on, we don't really understand what we are talking about. We are not informed. It is dishonoring to God that we don't use our minds and do our homework. Instead, we want the easy A.

A friend of mine recently paid me an offhand compliment. He was reading my blog on the Boston Marathon bombing and thought he knew where I was going with the piece. He was getting more and more irritated. Then, I defended Rolling Stones right to publish the picture they did of the bomber and my writing took some other unexpected turns. I defied the right wing ideological group-speak and party line. As you know, I am extremely hard on corporations and the people who run them. To whom much is given, much is expected. Too many Conservatives give businesses a free pass. Not me. An equal opportunity offender, as it were. Thank goodness I don't depend on writing for a living because I would be on a bean and hot dog diet. As it is, I have relative freedom to write what I think with little financial blowback.

Here is my latest unconventional take. There is a church starting out in New York City that was renting space from a restaurant to hold their Sunday service.  The restaurant changed its mind. As long as there was not a violation of a written contract, I say that it is within the rights of the restaurant to do so. Christians can't only, with integrity, defend our property rights, when for example, a Christian baker is fined for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple or an Innkeeper does not rent a Bed-and-Breakfast room to a male and woman not married for co-habitation. Either we believe in private property or we don't. We can't have it both ways when convenient only to us but cry foul when it is not convenient.

Eric Metaxas is a leading evangelical thinker and he just posted a question about the church-restaurant issue on Facebook, asking "What about religious liberty?" I am surprised that Metaxas fails to see the contradiction in his posture. We are not the only people in the U.S. with religious freedom. Even someone who is irreligious, has religious freedom to believe as he or she wishes.

It does not bode well for our intellectual index when one of our stars is so devoid of consistency. There are limits of course to private property but I think in 99% of the time, who owns the property has the right to exercise that right. It is not a public space despite parallel to arguments from the Civil Right Movement. In the end, behavior is an arena we can exert or approval or disapproval in commerce. People may believe as they wish within their own property rights, others don't have the right to behave as if they owned the place.

That is, until we live in a state-run economy.