Tolerance for everything, except that which is intolerable, of course.
And at this particular turn in the road, a hotel policy that won’t allow two unmarried people to share a bed is at the apex of what will not be tolerated.
In fact, a British appeals court just upheld a £3,600 ($5,800) fine against the Bulls over their policy. This stems from a 2008 complaint against them, filed when they refused to rent Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy a double room because they are not married.
Hall and Preddy countered that they are in a civil union and that the refusal to rent them a room violates the U.K.’s 2007 Equality Act.
That act, like so many acts similarly impacting freedom of religion and conscience, “exempts some religious institutions from some nondiscrimination laws, but commercial guesthouses” aren’t among those receiving exemptions.
It’s the same act that allowed practicing Sikhs to carry their ceremonial swords on passenger airplanes but made no room for British Airways’ employee Nadia Eweida to wear a cross.
And this is when the intolerance of Christianity comes into full view. The same British government that said a secularly-owned business has no obligation to allow a Christian to wear her cross has now gone the extra step—in the Bulls’ case—to claim that no one forces Christians to start a business and, therefore, they can’t object when the government wants to force them to violate their consciences.
In other words, if you’re a secularist, you and the law are going to get along just fine. But if you are a Christian, you start a business at your own peril…
That’s the new face of “tolerance” that has replaced “Victorian,” biblical ideals like freedom of expression and religion.
(From "Has Christianity Become Intolerable?" by Benjamin Bull, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, published at Town Hall.)
