The Witch Hunts, Monty Python, and Cotton Mather

The LGBT/LGBTQIA -M-O-U-S-E communities found two new targets of evil: Chip and Joanna Gaines, the Texas-talkin' couple whose "Fixer Upper" show on HGTV is charming.

It's not a cliff-hanger show. You know from the get-go that they are going to fix the house up, generally using some form of wood or tumbleweed mantle, and sacrificing walls to the "open concept." However, it's a clean, fun show.

Enter BuzzFeed, which apparently, for the Internet, is an Encyclopedia Britannica. Horrors! The Gaines and their four children attend a church pastored by a minister who believes in marriage is between a man and a woman and that psychological treatment for homosexuals can work. The Gaines are homophobic trolls, and, off with their heads, or at least their show.

Allow me to be the Cotton Mather of my era.

Before we launch into the destruction of two of the most guileless people to tread the perilous waters of fame, could we stop and take a breath? More importantly, in true Mather fashion, could we agree that before we hold the unilateral LGBTQIA witch (and warlock) trials that we force ourselves to require evidence beyond, "Well, I saw them with a guy we don't agree with, ergo, A WITCH! A WARLOCK!" The Monty Python boys did a parody of witch trials in their "Holy Grail" movie that was eerily prescient:

Peasants: We have found a witch! (A witch! a witch!) Burn her burn her!

Peasant 1: We have found a witch, may we burn her?

Vladimir: How do you known she is a witch?

P2: She looks like one!

V: Bring her forward

Woman: I'm not a witch! I'm not a witch!

V: ehh... but you are dressed like one.

W: They dressed me up like this!

All: naah no we didn't... no.

W: And this isn't my nose, it's a false one. (V lifts up carrot)

V: Well?

P1: Well we did do the nose

V: The nose?

P1: ...And the hat, but she is a witch!

V: Did you dress her up like this?

P1: No! (no no... no) Yes. (yes yeah) a bit (a bit bit a bit) But she has got a wart!

V: What makes you think she is a witch?

P2: Well, she turned me into a newt!

V: A newt?!

P2: I got better.

P3: Burn her anyway! (burn her burn her burn!)

The dialogue goes on from there with a chain of mental gymnastics akin to Democrats explanations for Hillary's loss: "The Russians did it!" "Aliens captured the polling places in rural areas!"

No one has come forward with any evidence that the Gaines and the show discriminate on the basis of anything, other than a hiring screen of an ability to turn a cactus into a granite island.

The witch hunters want the Gaines to put a gay couple on their show. The Gaines would have no difficulty helping a gay couple fix 'er up. However, the Gaines are based in Waco, Texas. The talent pool may be limited. Still, they have responded with all we need to know, "We do not discriminate." Absent evidence to the contrary, we are done.

From the Gaines to Elaine and Jonathan Huguenin of Elane Photography in New Mexico, and on to Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the former Sweet Cakes Bakery in Oregon -- these are the types of people who would give the shirts off their backs to someone in need. In fact, Aaron and Melissa Klein did. They paid a $135,000 fine for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. They closed their bakery, and Mr. Klein works now as a garbage collector. Their small business dream is gone. Both Mr. and Mrs. Klein said they served gay customers, but it was a religious choice not to participate in a same-sex marriage celebration.

The witch hunters pushed too far, demanding hangings and more witches, condemned by accused witches who turned state's (or was it stake's) evidence. Eventually, the outrage transfers to those who are killed. Thanks to the cool reasoning of Cotton Mather, a minister, and others who demanded evidence, the witch hunters seemed foolish. Absent proof, their cases were irrational, emotional, and, well, witch hunts. Their actions were pure discrimination against those who could not fight the howling accusers.

The photographers, cake-bakers, and fixer uppers do not act because of prejudice, hate, or discrimination. Their faith dictates drawing lines. Not everyone agrees with those lines, but those lines are surely protected by our constitutional religious liberties. Indeed, they are trying to live what was once the mantra of the 60s: Live and let live. They do.

Now if we could just get the witch hunters to do the same. Surely there is room in society for conscientious objection born of faith.

Marianne M. Jennings is a professor emeritus of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. She has been a JWR columnists since 1999.