AFA President Defends Christian Landscaper's Refusal to Work for Homosexuals
by Ed Thomas
November 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Should a Christian business have the right to turn down work from homosexual customers? In the case of a landscaping company in Houston, Texas, that is the question that has since last month garnered anger, criticism, and even talk of the need for local ordinances against discrimination.
The furor broke out after Garden Guy, Inc., sent an e-mail message to a homosexual couple declining a landscaping job because of the couple's sexual orientation. The e-mail, which clearly stated "We choose not to work for homosexuals," was forwarded across the Internet and picked up by the Houston Chronicle newspaper, which criticized Christian business owners Todd and Sabrina Farber for their stance.
The Christian couple has received their share of hate mail ever since. But among the supporters of the Farber's right to operate their business according to their convictions is Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association (AFA), a pro-family group that has issued a statement on the Farbers' behalf.
Wildmon says it should not come as a shock to anyone "when a guy who takes his faith seriously says, 'I can't support this.'" He says someone like that "doesn't need to be persecuted for his actions," especially when "they have millions of people who agree with them across the country, who have a problem with that particular behavior and lifestyle and just don't want to be supportive of it in any way, especially if they are themselves Christians."
The Farbers made a decision regarding with whom they chose to do business, and if "that's what they want to do, based on their religious convictions, that should be their right," the AFA spokesman contends.
"Todd, like millions of Americans, obviously has a moral conviction against homosexual behavior and that lifestyle, based on his religious beliefs," Wildmon adds. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with that."
Sabrina Farber, co-owner of Garden Guy, Inc., told the New York Times in an interview that the company had picked up $40,000 in new business in the past two weeks, while it lost only two clients worth about $500 each.
Mrs. Farber insists that she mentioned this, not to gloat, but to make the point that, although the whole affair has been ugly and emotionally draining, she and her husband would not do anything differently and deserved credit for not making excuses about why they had turned down the homosexual couple's business.
The November 11 Times article noted that the law appears to be on the Farbers' side. Lisa Graybill of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas was quoted as saying that "sexual orientation is not protected" by any local anti-discrimination ordinances in Houston, nor under the federal law of public accommodations.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
