Televangelist Pat Robertson on Thursday
criticized a Washington state judge's ruling against a florist who
refused to serve a gay couple, calling the situation “crazy.”
Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of
Arlene's Flowers & Gifts in Richland, said that she refused to
sell flowers to a gay couple planning their wedding because doing so
would be a violation of her faith.
Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex
Ekstrom on Wednesday disagreed, saying in his ruling that the Supreme
Court “has held that laws may prohibit religiously motivated
action, as opposed to belief.”
(Related: Judge
finds florist who refused to serve gay couple guilty of violating
state law.)
“This is outrageous,” Robertson
said of Ekstrom's ruling.
“To tell a florist that she's got to
provide flowers for a particular kind of wedding? What if somebody
wanted to marry his dog? She's got to have flowers for that? What
if there's a polygamous situation where a guy has five wives and he
wants to have five ceremonies and she's going to be forced by the law
to provide them flowers? This is crazy,” he said.
Robertson went on to suggest that
businesses should shutter rather than serve gay couples.