A Christian couple in the US state of Iowa have been driven out of business following their refusal to host a same-sex marriage ceremony at their wedding chapel.
Richard and Betty Odgaard both devout Mennonites, are the owners of Gortz Haus Gallery, a combined chapel, bistro, art gallery and flower shop in the town of Grimes. They were sued in 2013 by a gay couple on the grounds of discrimination whose marriage they declined to host on their premises. The resulting court hearing, and the hate campaign levelled at the couple saw a sharp downturn in business for Gortz Haus, leading ultimately to a decision to close the business this coming August.
“We had to get rid of the wedding business to avoid another complaint and possibly a higher penalty,” Richard Odgaard said, explaining that without the wedding chapel, the rest of the business began to founder.
Coupled with their legal woes, which saw a fine of $5,000 handed down by the court, the Odgaards revealed that they became the targets for a campaign of hate messages for maintaining their belief that marriage is a sacrament between one man and one woman. As regular customers began to stay away, Betty Odgaard suffered depression.
“This took me down to the darkest I’ve ever been before,” she said.
Announcing that Gortz Haus will cease trading completely in August, Richard predicted that the fate suffered by his business will be repeated across America. With the legal burden on the business owners to prove they did not discriminate, he said, businesses run with a Christian ethos are an easy target.
“It’s a matter of setting somebody up and collecting money,” he said. “It’s that simple. It’s all they have to do.”