The Heavy Price Tag of Believing in Freedom and Liberty

Believing in something has a cost. You can lose friends, relationships with family, your job, and in some cases even your life. Our country was founded on a belief in freedom and liberty while standing in the face of tyranny, but those patriots knew better than anyone that freedom is never free.

Our culture punishes different points of view. Liberal people demonize traditional family values and conservatives refuse to build bridges with people who are different from them. This lack of patience with opposing views is bi-partisan and across the board. No one is immune. 

Laws Protecting Citizens' Freedoms

We have laws in place to protect the freedoms of our citizens so that they are not punished based on their origins and choices as long as they are lawful. For example, you cannot discriminate when hiring an employee based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. The basis for not discriminating those things is based on the Declaration of Independence and its words regarding equality. 

When we run into examples in our culture where one side of the aisle is trying to discriminate against someone from the other side it makes you shake your head. 

On August 8, 2023, CNN reported on an incident with Southwest Airlines that was shocking. The title of the article was “Federal Judge orders Southwest Airlines attorneys to attend ‘religious-liberty training’ from conservative group”. 

What happened to flight attendant Charlene Carter was blatant discrimination. In 2022, a jury found both Southwest and Transport Union Workers discriminated against her when it fired her after she expressed her pro-life beliefs to her union president.

CNN went on to write that,

Following the verdict, Starr ordered Southwest to reinstate Carter and take several other corrective actions, including requiring both the airline and the union to ‘inform Southwest flight attendants that, under Title VII, they may not discriminate against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs, including – but not limited to – those expressed on social media and those concerning abortion.’

But in messages sent by three Southwest attorneys to the company’s employees, according to a sanctions order handed down by Starr, the airline instead said that,

The judge said Southwest also sent around a memo to flight attendants in which the company ‘lambasts Carter’ by taking issue with the conduct she was fired over.

It's Not About Abortion

Let me be clear, this post is not about abortion. We can save that for another day. This is about corporations with an agenda to shut people up who have strongly held beliefs and live those beliefs out every day. Ms. Carter never should have been fired and I applaud Judge Starr for rightly interpreting and administering our laws. 

What is so threatening to a multi-billion dollar corporation that a single employee can hold a belief that could not only tempt them to break the law but then goes on to send out a corporate-wide email (looking like propaganda) vilifying her “religious practices and beliefs.” 

Patriots, we have got to do better. We just have to. It is our responsibility to stand up and call out these heinous acts against our citizens’ individual rights for doing what our forefathers bled and died for. 

A Message to Charlene Carter and Other Patriots

Ms. Carter, if you ever read this, I would be honored to send you some Defender Gear. 

I hope every one of us has the courage to stand up and stand out like she did when evil tries to undo what God created in our great country.

Because after all, believing in something has a cost, and freedom is never free. 

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/08/politics/southwest-airlines-sanctions-alliance-defending-freedom/index.html