Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for April 30, 2015

How ironic that this strip appears right after GoFundMe cancelled the fundraiser for that Seattle bakery that was found guilty of discrimination, citing a violation of their Terms of Service.

Right on, Eddie.

And here I thought ‘religious freedom restoration’ was only about denying employees medical coverage for birth control supplies…

If they talk like this much longer it might suddenly become ‘closing time’ . . . too late to order.

Oh crap… this is getting boring.

they should be ashamed of themselves…taking money…most bigots will do it for nothing..

I think something gave Eddie indigestion.

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst“Are full of passionate intensity.”

Thank God I’m not one of them……am I?….If I’m me, how can I be one of them?….Thank God I’m not one of them….

religious freedom restoration is a crock. It can mean anything to anyone’s faith and beliefs. Could that mean banks could not lend money to some group because the bank’s leadership feels in their faith that the group is an affront to their religion? Or, that school districts not hire women teachers because of some bible passage? Or, have the red cross check to see everyone’s religion first before transfusing blood to a patient? Or, will it invalidate many marriages based on race or creed, because of some religious text of keeping the pure bloodline? Or, some cult member who hates psychology and psychiatry deny coverage to mental health counseling or drug counseling?

The only bigotry im seeing is that of the writer of this “comic” strip, in now allowing people to think what they want and believe what they want. This sword cuts both ways baby. I’m cutting ties with this strip. It’s funny when its not political, otherwise its extremely offensive, which happens far too often.

@Steven Young:

You’re welcome to believe what you want. I am also welcome to call you an idiot for believing in it.

The real trouble is not in belief; the real trouble is bigotry and hate masquerading as religion freedom.

First, the companies in question are not saying they will not serve gay people. They are only saying they do not wish to participate in a ceremony that goes against their religion. This does not make them bigots. However, in this storyline, I find it interesting that the the haters who are intolerant of other people’s beliefs have forced a couple out of business and in the end they have been rewarded. Backfire!

These religious beliefs (like the definition of marriage) have stood the test of time for over 2000 years. Defending them has become cause for attack by the “tolerant” people. I guess they are only “tolerant” of those that they agree with.As usual.

And the Lord said: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Sorry, but our country was founded by those seeking to escape religious persecution. If gays want to have a legal civil union, fine. But they should not try to ram a wedding down a church’s throat if it goes against a church’s religious dogma. A church has every right to refuse to give a gay couple the sacrament of marriage. That is their belief. I am tired of these few gay couples looking for Christian business persons to reject them & then suing the crap out of them & ruining their lives. Very nasty & mean-spirited, & for the party (Dems) that claims they preach tolerance, they are incredibly intolerant of any viewpoint but their own.

if marriage is so sacred, why are divorces allowed?

most employees spend to much time in the ‘John’ instead of working

lol, the Christian Taliban strike again. Either my religion or else you are anti religion. well, my religion doesn’t allow your religion to boss me around or otherwise tell me what to believe. Go move to Somalia. these Fundies want it “their” way or else.

entitled much? ignorant much? God like powers for little human “wants”. lol Freedom from your religion, keep the church out of the state.

Thank goodness my religion doesn’t forbid contact with the stupid and prejudiced or I’d have to give up this strip.

Preventing conception means stopping a pregnancy before a unique new life is created. You’re only killing or stopping a man’s sperm cell or a woman’s unfertilized egg from getting together.

Pills, medications or techniques that cause a fertilized egg (technically a new, unique life) to die or not implant are considered a form of murder. Nabuquduriuzhur understands the difference.

If you don’t understand the difference, then you don’t know enough about the situation to make any informed decisions about it.

One man’s ignorance and prejudice disguised as humor. No Christian store ever said they would refuse to serve gays outright, just that they wouldn’t be willing participants in supporting a lifestyle they had moral objections to. It’s called Freedom of Association, but it only works one way. I wonder if Flo allows concealed or open carry.

@starcandlesExactly WRONG! The definition of marriage has changed a lot over 2000 years. It used to be a transfer of property (a woman) from her father to her husband. Are you saying you want to go back to that?

When you open up your business to the public you don’t get to say “it’s against my opinions” to deny service. Selling a cake is no more participating in the ceremony than renting a limo to the couple.

I really wish the right wing christians would quit acting like they’re the victims of persecution when they’re demanding the right to persecute others.

@AnonHow do you know there’s “another bakery down the road” and if there is, they won’t refuse for the same reason? The myth of a “free market” should not determine our freedoms. You don’t have to like a customer but you do have to do the job you agreed to do.

Creflo Dollar is crowd sourcing his $65 million jet.

In the Hobby Lobby case, the HL lawyers were wrongly allowed to redefine some methods of birth control (like the IUD) as abortifacients, which they are not.

And isn’t it interesting that the HL CEO can manage to fund a “Bible museum” (complete with fake artifacts as well as fake history), at a cost of multiple millions of dollars, right in the heart of Washington, D.C., but HL can’t afford to pay for birth control for its female employees.

Love this cartoon, but I really, really get tired of Nabuquduriuzhur and his lectures.

@Zstimman: It’s not anti-Christian, it’s anti-bigot. Sadly far too many people who profess to be followers of Christianity get these concepts mixed up.

And all the Right Whiners, eh, Wingers pointedly ignore the contents of the strip, in favor of ‘us vs. them.’Yes, you can con your way to wealth by blaming “them.” (Maybe in tomorrow’s strip the couple will say how grateful they are that people hate gays enough to make them rich.)-I loved the time a young woman, probably tired of making pizzas with her husband, who told the press their pizzaria wouldn’t cater any gay weddings.The reaction should have been derisive laughter; who’d want a pizza joint to cater a wedding?Instead, they closed due to threats and hate mail. (Interesting. That stuff usually comes from the Right.)And then the couple hit the jackpot with donations from well-meaning sympathizers, and said they may never (sniff) open the pizzaria again…

Keep it up Wiley – this is what good comics do – and your’s has always been one of the best.

Yes, Eddie is right, one little burp is enough. What gives with ya guys who are mad at Wiley. His characterization are good and real. We still don’t know the ‘them’ or so much of the situation and circumstance. That makes for intrigue and irony. Remember what the name of this strip is.

Considering that Wiley hasn’t specified what “them” is, it’s sure got a lot of people in a tizzy!

" Nabuquduriuzhur said, about 7 hours ago

@Kymberleigh

It’s a little disconcerting that Wiley doesn’t respect the U.S. Constitution. I thought better of him.

The case was in Oregon and essentially, the state is violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments, but that’s not unusual.

The state has a long history of doing that.

For example, they tried to tax tobacco bought in other states. Commerce clause violation."

Try playing again. Public accommodation laws. You must serve all the public. Oregon includes gays and lesbians in its anti-discrimination laws. The bakery discriminated against a lesbian couple and violated public accommodation laws. They were held accountable for said action in a court of law.

Your religion doesn’t mean you can ignore the law. For instance, my religion stance opposes war. It doesn’t mean I don’t have to pay taxes to support the military industrial complex.

All courts, including the Supremes, have held that you don’t get to ignore the law just because you don’t like it, which is what this Oregon bakery case comes down to.

If you really believe that (and you don’t know the difference) then you’re a bigger idiot than you think you are.

Sad-sad excuse for entertainment. I’m done with liberal foolery.

“starcandles GoComics PRO Member said, about 2 hours ago“Sorry, but our country was founded by those seeking to escape religious persecution. If gays want to have a legal civil union, fine. But they should not try to ram a wedding down a church’s throat if it goes against a church’s religious dogma. A church has every right to refuse to give a gay couple the sacrament of marriage. "

No gay couple is trying to force a church to marry them. You display a stunning ignorance of what the current court cases are about. We are talking about CIVIL marriage. As in, what you have to apply to the state for. You can get married in whatever church you want, but even if you do so, unless you have applied for marriage license from the state and then gotten married by a legally approved officiant, your marriage is not valid in the state’s eyes, and it doesn’t entitle you to file jointly as a married couple.

Gays are fighting for the right to get married legally in the state’s eyes, not force a church to marry them.

Yea, Wiley, as you libs know, tolerance is a one way street. You demonstrate your tolerance so well!

If Wiley’s intent was to expose latent (actually it’s pretty overt) bigotry among his readership he couldn’t have done it better. The jokes on us folks.

“emotherian said, While some of you bash Republicans lets set the record straight. DEMS have opposed our rights to exist from the beginning. DEMS placed us into another form of slavery with the welfare acts since the 60’s and keep piling it on so when it is reduced or cut, it is an outrage that starts with the DEMS. "

Hmmm, well if you studied your history, you’d know that the dems of today were the republicans of old. When Nixon embraced his Southern Strategy after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights act into law, the bigots who had been historically members of the Democratic Party became Republicans.

Second, I’ve always found this argument about the welfare state amusing. It’s funny how when it affects poor people, it’s a nanny state that encourages dependence, but when the welfare is to bail out banks and billionaires, it’s just good policy.

Exactly what “bitter, over the top and shrill” political commentary do read into this comic? What I see is a rather tame satire on (against) bigotry. Are you saying such a position is shrill and over the top? Perhaps what you’re seeing is yourself in the mirror…and blaming the mirror. Truly sad.

I read this strip to get a chuckle. This kind of stuff belongs in the political comics pages. Perhaps Mr. Miller should have two strips like Tom Toles. If he does, I may read it but I am done reading this one.

If a bakery won’t bake a pro gay cake they get put out of business. If a bakery wont bake an anti gay cake the same government entity that effectively put the first bakery out of business says that is within their rights. If company agrees to provide 16 out of 22 (16 of them being birth preventatives and the rest being abortifacient drugs) they are vilified for their beliefs. Maybe this seems right to you but it doesn’t t me.

Moral bigotry is a two-way street, deah. Go figyah!

Nothing like a healthy dose of REVERSE bigotry. Way to go, Wiley.

These “Dr. Evils” will find out that $1,000,000 doesn’t in streach out in the 2010s like it did 50 years ago.`Also, I would like to point out that Wiley Miller has not alluded to identifying either the customers in the diner or the definition of “they/them”. You may think you know, but are you sure?

Kudos to those that obviously think for themselves. To the paid stooges and fools that follow them that regurgitate talking points and such with no thought of their own. As belief seems to have taken away their thought. There is no mention of a particular religion in the above strip and the others tied to it. It is quite interesting that the Christian Religious Right to Bigot and Deceive, started ranting about this comic strip thread. Feel guilt much? You should if you identify with the ‘religious’ couple in this cartoon. Let go the hate and fear and the guilt will go away too. As it is, those that say they are offended and won’t come back, we know they will keep reading, so they can rant and clog up threads like this with falsehoods, even if they change their identity repeatedly or maintain several. Who has time for that nonsense, especially for the fools that aren’t paid? All the rest of us can really do is pity them and hope they wake out of their fog soon, before the extreme right wing takes us back to the Dark Ages. Religions have only had tax free exemption since 1965, the agreement was religious organizations would stay out of politics. Since the vast majority have violated that agreement, time to start taxing them as the businesses they truly are. Leaving them a tax right off for actual charity work. As for me perhaps I should explore the site that allows bigots to retire early by having fools send them money for nothing… In the mean time I have to go and continue shedding out my Giant Shetland Pony.

I wonder how many of the people loudly announcing their departure will pop up in the comments section tomorrow.

Hmm, coupled with some decent savings, that million isn’t bad for retirement. However, it’ll probably only work a few times. The 27th business owners who depend on fellow believers to bail them out will be lucky to raise enough for a shopping spree at the dollar store.

I can’t speak for all the possible faiths Wiley could be alluding to, but it’s sad when fellow Christians twist and warp a few scriptural allusions in order to justify ignoring all the others that tell us to love and serve one another unconditionally. Or the ones that point out how “righteous actions” done for selfish purposes are not as good as they seem. Like the couple above, the rewards are only good during this life.

“….. The last thing I read the comics for is bitter political commentary. …..”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~If that is so, then why on earth are you reading the comics?

It’s called “freedom of association.”

If I’m to judge by his followers’ actions, Jesus was a pretty awful guy.

The Supreme Court oral arguments on Marriage Equality are so day before yesterday. All that the bigots had left to argue was that allowing gay marriage would destroy straight marriage and be bad for the children. As though natural and adopted children of gays don’t count. Every previous argument has been tossed out as contrary to fact or amounting only to animus.

If anyone encounters any duplicates of any of my comments today, please accept my apologizes/ It appears that I made too many comments for me to go back and delete the duplicates.

Bravo, Wiley, Bravo. The length of today’s Comments column is proof positive of how spot-on you are. It’s just sad that there are so many narrow-minded people who cannot stand to see their own beliefs being lampooned here.

Wow. A very large number of comments. Must be a large number of bigots on either side. In reality we are all bigots in our own beliefs. SO BE IT.

I notice that the two are still holding their menus. Not planning on leaving any time soon, even if Flo serves them “thems?” Despite what they state.

re: Steven Young. Well said.

What, exactly, is your point here? That no one other than White, heterosexual males should have any rights? Hey, while we’re at it, let’s bring back slavery! Good times, good times…

I think we can safely assume that this arc will end (for now) tomorrow, and we can go back to Danae’s adventures in creating her own reality (which has less to do with reality than Eddie’s adventures do………)

How clearly worded was that law? It sounds like it could be used to justify virtually any prejudice.

Would it allow atheists to bar Christians, Jews, or any religious group.

Or was could another religion use it for their freedoms.

Was Christianity given special treatment?

Could racism be justified as a heartfelt belief, if the Klan chose to call themselves a religion, would they be recognised…. if not … why not?

Thank you Wiley for provoking a discussion about an important social issue that, IMHO, represents all of the rightie-tighties’ attempts to control people, especially women.

" In fact, it is over the top and shrill."You mean, kinda like the guy who said: “Regardless of your opinions or beliefs this jerk cartoonist should have his contract cancelled.”?

And yet, I heard this rabbledabble around the local “Dinahs” back in the ’70’s around “Buck’s Hahbah” wayback when.. Yep, Wiley, you’ve done it again, but they just don’t know it. Nice shot.

I had to read through all the comments before I added another one …That’s the only way to do it…..I thought that after I did that, I would have a pithy comment to add….But, no….I’m just stunned..So many of the comments are just plain stupid…Why do idiots even read this comic?….Oh, how I wish the people who pledge to never read this comic again, would do so!……..Wiley never even mentioned Christians!…Mr. Miller, please don’t stop doin’ what you’re doin’ I love it when you squirrel up the nuts………

i sill say shame on those two…taking money?….what ever happened to being a bigot for the sake of being a bigot…for shame….

I love all the folks telling Wiley what his comic “can be” or “cannot be.” He’s an artist and he can do what he wants. If you don’t like it, don’t read it (and really, I don’t need to know that you didn’t read it, or aren’t going to read it).

NOBODY corrected Dr. Silly’s mistake up above? (I quote: The phrase, “separation of church and state” comes from a guy named Thomas Jefferson. You may have heard of him. He wrote the Constitution. ) Er……no, he didn’t. Thomas Jefferson had as much to do with writing the Constitution as he did of writing the Magna Carta. He did write the first draft of that Declaration thing……..@Varnes Most of the comments on here would go far to driving a man to drink, or at least to come up with puns on “Brevity”!

I tried to read through all of these comments… I really did… but after about two thirds of them they all started to sound like blah, blah, blah, etc…

I have a thought though. I remember somewhere in the bible (lower case because there are sooo many versions and none are complete) that Jesus (if he really existed) spent time with the sinners, unclean, and the prostitutes. Did he judge them or tolerate them? Did it make any difference to him what the particular ‘sin’ (oh how I dislike that word) was in evidence? Homosexual… (real word and not a cop out.) Prostitute… Adulterer… or any of the many Thou shalt-nots that were so violated in ‘his’ day. What about the rich and religious and the money changers? I think he sort of condemned their actions publicly.

Paul (whom I think said That he Loved Timothy) said love passes all understanding etc. (From one of his ramblings to the Corinthians). If it is love, physical or emotional or purposeful; leave it be and be happy and celebrate that love with those who found it. And maybe try to find your kind of love to celebrate too.

There is no such thing in the Constitution as “separation of church and state.” It’s that the state shall not sponsor a religion.Secondly, get your facts in order. Obama and the Clintons both supported a freedom from religion act. And feel free to go into a Muslim bakery and demand a gay wedding cake with pork insisting that it’s your right to make them do things your way. The Christians shouldn’t be the only ones who are “educated.”