Liberals wrestle with conscience over conservative artists

With the advent of blogs and Twitter and other avenues for personal expression online, it has become ever easier for public figures (and private ones as well) to make known their personal opinions on all manner of subjects unrelated to their cause for fame. What’s interesting is that when some fans find their favorite author/actor/artist/what-have-you espousing ideas they find repugnant they have an existential crisis.

Now, to be sure, this is nothing new for most conservative and/or traditionally religious people. The ranks of the cultural elites are filled with those who espouse all kinds of liberal notions that are the opposite of our own cherished beliefs, even going so far as to express disgust for that to which we hold fast. We’ve become accustomed to that actor in our favorite show/movie or this author of our favorite book giving us pause. And with these celebrities venturing onto the Internet where they can make their opinions even more transparent, this becomes a more common occurrence.

What’s interesting is that liberal fans are now dealing with this problem. I’ve seen this crop up most recently with regard to Orson Scott Card, the author of the sci-fi classic “Ender’s Game” and a devout Mormon who espouses social conservative political views. Card has been a newspaper columnist and commentator for some time, but recently he’s been very vocal about the travesty of courts redefining marriage as well as giving free rein to abortion.