Last week, a video went viral of a coffee shop owner throwing out an offensive Christian group handing out anti-abortion propaganda.
The video went all over the internet and sites like Instinct covered the situation.
Now, the man himself, Ben Borgman, is sharing his thoughts on the situation.
Borgman spoke with the Huffington Post about the incident and about his perspective on Christianity.
“I know Christians, and they don’t confront people in the street, or in a place of business,” he said. “They certainly don’t print out a bunch of hate messages and fold them up like pretty butterflies and leave them in parks for kids to find. There’s the crime in this story ― what did that cost Seattle to clean up, I wonder?”
Borgman also took the time to fight against the idea that he was discriminating against the customers because they were Christians
“We have religious organizations that meet here regularly,” he said. “These people were not thrown out for being Christian. I’ve been so clear about that. This removal was very focused on this group, or any group like them.”
He continued, “They were put out because they print ugly crap and hand it out in my town, period. I would have thrown out a group that tried to print ugly crap about Christians, too. Trying to stir up hate and discontent is not how to fix things.”
And it seems Borgman is not gong to apologize for what he did.
“Nothing gets erased by apologies, just words. My words are out there, on video… I have to stand by them, they’re mine,” he told HuffPost. “[I hope that people] take away that we don’t hate Christians, we don’t even hate anti-abortionists. It’s these groups that picket funerals, and blow up clinics, and paint swastikas. These are the groups who can’t meet here.”
h/t: Huffington Post
Good for him. I applaud his
Good for him. I applaud his actions.And those Republican who wants to pass that religious freedom bill will finally realize it will go back against them.
I’m sorry, but even with this
I'm sorry, but even with this clarification, I still believe Mr. Borgman was in the wrong. According to the group, they were not proselytizing or disseminating literature within his shop. Even if they were, the owner should have first told them to stop. Then if they refused to comply, he would have been perfectly within his rights to ask them to leave. What if positions were reversed? What if a Gay Rights organization had been passing out pamphlets about HIV and discrimination that directly attacked Christians and their various churches by accusing them of having blood on their hands? Then after a long day of campaigning the members of the group stop in a coffee shop owned by Christians who in turn managed to get a copy of their pamphlets. Would the Christian owners be right in kicking out the gay group even if the group was not distributing their pamphlets within the shop?