Farmer Can’t Sell Crops at Market Because He Believes in Traditional Marriage

A Forbes magazine article explains that a farmer outside East Lansing, Michigan, can no longer sell crops at market because he’s a Christian. Steve Tennes, owner of The Country Mill, rents out his orchard for weddings.  But when he was approached by a same sex couple, he didn’t believe he could do that without violating his conscience:

The buying and selling of produce used to be a matter of pure commerce, untainted by politics, but now East Lansing officials have banned Tennes from their market because he did something unpardonable—he declined to do a same-sex wedding on his property (which isn’t even in the same county as East Lansing). Once that came to light, city officials decided to strike back at him through their regulatory powers.

Here’s how this story unfolded.

In 2014, a gay couple wanted an orchard wedding at The Country Mill, which is something Tennes offers. But he turned these two women down because of his religious belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. He suggested that they try another farm in the area and the two were subsequently married in 2015. The following year, however, one of the two women wrote a Facebook post in which she urged consumers not to do business with Country Mill due to the owner’s discrimination against gay couples.

Guess it worked!  Way to go, lesbian couple — way to stick it to a Christian.  Here’s the thing — they apparently got married anyway.  That’s the beauty of this nation.

I don’t care who you sleep with or what you believe.  Liberals should extend to conservatives the same courtesy. Imagine for a second if it was a gay couple owning the farm.  Should they be forced to host a traditional marriage if they didn’t believe in it?

We shouldn’t force our beliefs on anyone, so stop it already.

Image Credit: Pixabay