Barronelle Stutzman, the homophobic Washington florist who ran afoul of the state's nondiscrimination laws in 2013 because Jesus, is doing everything she can to make herself a martyr on the issue of same-sex marriage. We told you last week that she refused the very generous settlement offer of $2001 to cover fines and court costs saying it would make her like Judas, and it would seem that Stutzman is doubling down on the comparison:
Washington's constitution guarantees us 'freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment.' I cannot sell that precious freedom. You are asking me to walk in the way of a well-known betrayer, one who sold something of infinite worth for 30 pieces of silver. That is something I will not do.
…except that Judas received payment to betray Jesus. Stutzman is being asked to pay a fine for breaking the law.
Stutzman appears to be so involved in her martyr complex that she's "forgotten" the teachings of the deity she's wielding as a cudgel, as Jesus commands his followers to "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" and Paul's letter to the Romans instructs to "Render to all what is due them." Driving home Stutzman's tunnel-visioned self-involvement is that she says, without any apparent presence of irony or self-awareness:
Our state would be a better place if we respected each other's differences, and our leaders protected the freedom to have those differences.
Do we really need to point out that non-discrimination laws do that very thing?
