Restaurant cancels Christian group's event just before start time because eatery's staffers — many of whom are LGBTQ+ — felt 'uncomfortable,' 'unsafe'



A Virginia restaurant canceled a Christian group's event reportedly less than two hours before the start time last week, and the venue said the reason was because the eatery's staffers — many of whom are LGBTQ+ — felt "uncomfortable" and "unsafe."

What are the details?

The Family Foundation — a Richmond-based outfit affiliated with Focus on the Family — said Metzger Bar & Butchery, also in Richmond, "refused to service our pre-reserved event, leaving us scrambling just moments before" the start time Wednesday night.

The Family Foundation — which advocates for "policies based on biblical principles that enable families to flourish at the state and local level" — added that "for weeks, we had planned a gathering of supporters and interested people in a private room to fellowship and receive an update on our work. About an hour and a half before the event was set to take place, one of the restaurant’s owners called our team to cancel the event."

The Family Foundation said its vice president of operations explained to the restaurant that "guests were arriving ... shortly" and requested an explanation. "Sure enough, an employee looked up our organization, and their wait staff refused to serve us," the Family Foundation added.

More from the group:

Welcome to the double standard of the left, where some believe Jack Phillips must be forced to create a wedding cake as part of the celebration of a same-sex ceremony but any business should be able to deny basic goods and services to those who hold biblical values around marriage.

At The Family Foundation, we believe individuals in private business should not have to violate their convictions, which for some Christians means not celebrating what God has declared sin (Romans 1:32). However, most, if not all, faiths not only allow for the provision of services, like food, to those with whom they disagree, but they also encourage it.

The Family Foundation noted that after being denied service, it was able to "pivot to another restaurant in time to hold our event" and that "our witness will not be diminished, and we will not be silenced. We will speak out when we see this type of religious discrimination occurring in Virginia."

What did the restaurant have to say?

Metzger Bar & Butchery posted an explanation Friday to Instagram:

The restaurant said, "Recently we refused service to a group that had booked an event with us after the owners of Metzger found out it was a group of donors to a political organization that seeks to deprive women and LGBTQ+ persons of their basic human rights in Virginia. We have always refused service to anyone making our staff uncomfortable or unsafe and this was the driving force behind our decision. Many of our staff are women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community."

Anything else?

Also on Friday, the restaurant announced it was "so grateful to our many guests and neighbors for their support the past few days" and that to say "thank you," it was donating all proceeds from those buying a particular cocktail that night to Equality Virginia, which calls itself "the leading advocacy organization" in the state "seeking equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people."

​Court rules against university that targeted Christian group, saying they were 'hard-pressed' to find a more blatant example of 'discrimination'



The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled against the University of Iowa calling its decision to deregister a Christian student group as one of the most obvious examples of discrimination that it has ever seen.

In a ruling issued on Friday, the court unanimously sided with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a national faith-based group that organizes local chapters at colleges and universities around the country, putting on Bible studies and worship gatherings.

In 2018, the University of Iowa decided to deregister InterVarsity — along with other student religious groups on campus — over its commonsense practice of requiring leaders to agree with its statement of faith.

In targeting religious groups, the university cited its Human Rights Policy, which mandates that student groups not differentiate on the basis of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and a range of other categories — religion included.

Besides the school's obvious trampling on students' freedom of religion, lawyers for the Christian group argued that the school also enforced its policy discriminatorily. The 8th Circuit Court agreed.

In the ruling, the court told school administrators it was "hard-pressed to find a clearer example of viewpoint discrimination" than the actions they took against the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

"What the University did here was clearly unconstitutional," the court stated. "It targeted religious groups for differential treatment under the Human Rights Policy — while carving out exemptions and ignoring other violative groups with missions [the University] presumably supported. The University and individual defendants turned a blind eye to decades of First Amendment jurisprudence or they proceeded full speed ahead knowing they were violating the law."

The court also warned that school officials who "make calculated choices about enacting or enforcing [such] unconstitutional policies" are not entitled to qualified immunity but rather should be held personally responsible for their actions.

Lawyers representing InterVarsity touted the ruling as a victory for students' First Amendment rights.

"Schools are supposed to be a place of free inquiry and open thought, but the school officials here punished opinions they didn't like and promoted ones they did—all while using taxpayer dollars to do it," said Daniel Blomberg, senior counsel at Becket, in a statement. "The good news is that they've been held accountable, and school officials nationwide are on notice. We are optimistic that in the future, colleges will pursue policies of accommodation, not discrimination, when it comes to religious exercise on campus."

Friday's victory followed two earlier victories for Becket and religious student group clients fighting discrimination at Iowa universities. Those cases included InterVarsity v. Wayne State and BLinC v. University of Iowa.