On one level, this is a simple story about Culture Wars American in 2019.
A trans woman, a regular customer, is eating dinner in a local restaurant in a corner of America — the upper Midwest — where liberal and conservative citizens regularly bump into one another.
A pair of elderly locals is seated nearby and they make some unfriendly comments about the transexuals — not to the trans customer, but to their waitress. The waitress is triggered, when her boss insists that she serve these customers The woke NBC News double-decker headline outlines the outcome of this exchange in the marketplace of ideas:
‘Morals over money’: Waitress fired after refusing to serve transphobic customers
“Turning a blind eye to hate is just as bad as saying the hateful things in my opinion,” the waitress, Brittany Spencer, said.
This is the stuff of shallow television news reports, of course. But here is the question that haunted a GetReligion reader: “Did anyone think to ask what’s on her neck and what relevance it might have to morals??”
The waitress, you see, is heavily inked and she has a large, prominent tattoo on her neck that raises some interesting religious issues.
This tattoo includes a large Byzantine cross, of the style favored in Eastern churches — Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic — in Slavic lands and elsewhere.
But the cross is upside down.
That’s interesting. And, well, it appears to be attacked to a helmet or a skull with a large pair of horns. It’s hard to tell since that part of the tattoo is obscured by the shirt that the waitress is wearing.
The big question: Are the “morals” in this story linked to Eastern Christian religion or to the rejection of Eastern Christian faith and/or blasphemy linked to that tradition? Are we dealing with religion or anti-religion or some completely different form of religion? I honestly do not know.
Here’s some basics, care of aggregated report at NBC News:
A waitress who was fired after refusing to serve transphobic customers at a Wisconsin restaurant on Saturday said she has no regrets about putting “morals over money.”
During her shift at Fat Joe’s Bar and Grill in the town of Fond du Lac, Brittany Spencer overheard a couple making insulting comments about a transgender customer sitting at the bar. As she served the customers, they turned to her to ask what she thought about the trans patron. …
Spencer said she asked her manager if another employee could serve the table, because she was uncomfortable, but her manager said no.
The times being what they are, Spencer went home and shared her story on social media.
At that point, the usual warfare began.
“I WAS FIRED FROM MY JOB BECAUSE I REFUSED TO WAIT ON A TABLE WHO WERE MAKING TRANSPHOBIC REMARKS ABOUT GUESTS AT ANOTHER TABLE,” Spencer wrote on her Facebook page Sunday. “But I’ll always choose my morals over money. See ya.”
One more detail: The co-owner of Fat Joe’s — one Tad Wallender — said the restaurant serves all kinds of people (including trans folks) and that professional waitresses have to learn how to cope with people spouting their beliefs.
“We are going to serve anyone in here as long as it’s a safe environment,” Wallender said. “I’ve been in the service industry for a good 15 years, and I’ve heard hundreds of conversations I didn’t agree with, but it’s a matter of fact of brushing it off and having to tough it out through your task.”
So what’s the point here?
On one level, it appears that there is little evidence — based on what people are SAYING — that this is a “religion story.” Well, I guess there is that reference to “morals.”
But what about that Byzantine cross? Yes, I’m an Orthodox layman, so that stands out for me. But would it have been out of line for a reporter to have asked Spencer a question about the cross and the source of her convictions?
Just asking.
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