Michigan Farmer Fights Back Against East Lansing for Violating His Religious Freedom – IOTW Report

Michigan Farmer Fights Back Against East Lansing for Violating His Religious Freedom

WFB: A Michigan farmer is challenging city officials after he was banned from a farmer’s market following a Facebook post in which he affirmed the Catholic Church’s teachings on marriage.

Steve Tennes, who runs Country Mill Farms, is challenging the city of East Lansing and seeking a permanent order in federal court on Friday that would allow him to continue participating at the city’s farmer’s market, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom.

City officials targeted Tennes after seeing a Facebook post from 2016, in which he responded to a question about whether his family would use Country Mill Farms to host a same-sex wedding. Steve said they would not host a same-sex wedding because his family believes marriage is between one man and one woman, however he and his family always served everyone at their farm and at the market.

“Starting in August 2010, our family farm had taken our organic apples, peaches, and blueberries 22 miles away from our farm into the city of East Lansing where we had served everyone of all backgrounds for seven years,” Tennes told the Washington Free Beacon, adding that the city had invited his family back every year as a “preferred vendor.”

After seeing his post, a city council member denounced Tennes’s Catholic beliefs in a public debate, calling them “ridiculous, horrible, [and] hateful things.” The mayor of East Lansing claimed Tennes was translating his “Catholic view on marriage” into a business practice and was only doing it for money. Other city officials argued his views on marriage reflected those defending racism in the Jim Crow era.  read more

7 Comments on Michigan Farmer Fights Back Against East Lansing for Violating His Religious Freedom

  1. Good for him, I hope he sticks it hard to the East Lansing council and Mayor. Having said that if he wins I hope everyone who supports free speech comes out to support him because you can bet money that the left will be protesting or worse when he reopens.

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  2. I’m glad to hear it. I hope he gets a fortune. I graduated from Michigan State, located in East Lansing. That city wouldn’t survive without all the students, yet the city is setup to fleece students of every dime they can get… it’s sickening what they do to broke college students…. of course if this guy wins they’ll just pass the cost off onto the students unfortunately.

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  3. Pure evil on display for everyone to see. The only thing missing is the mark of the beast. I hope the voters of East Lansing will remember their elected “defenders” of inclusion, diversity and tolerance when election time comes around. May the Tennes family be debit free after they finish in court with these narrow minded mistakes elected by the people of East Lansing….

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  4. I would have just hired a couple of local “friends” o hospitalize the council members then send them flowers saying I will be attending the market and to be careful about Karma.

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  5. @grool

    Not very… it’s your typical white liberal college campus. However, when I was there, I was in the college republicans and when we attended CPAC, Michigan State brought the largest amount of students of any university that attended, so it’s actually more conservative than your typical college campus. Probably due to it having a large agricultural program, so they get a fair amount of farmers.

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