Should Americans have the right to live and work according to their beliefs?
When questioned about this issue, students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison tended to instinctively answer in the affirmative. That is, if a businessperson such as a dress designer was asked to make a dress for Melania Trump, that person should have the right to either perform that work or refuse it based on their beliefs. Seems pretty straightforward, yes? All the students shown in this video clip agreed with this idea as an example of American-style freedom.
And yet, something odd happened when the interviewer asked the same students about issues relating to social justice cases. For instance, should a Christian photographer have the right to refuse to take pictures at a same-sex wedding? Or — what if it was a Muslim wedding? Suddenly, the students’ quick and easy answers to the first set of theoretical questions taper off and start to reverse when the interviewer brings these other cases into the spotlight. From these students’ reactions, it seems that their liberal bias has started to conflict with their inherent free will. Where did these ideas come from?
Watch, as what they have to say to the interviewer may surprise you.
