Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Aaron and Melissa Klein, the married Christian owners of the bakery SweetCakes, are back in the news for doing what litigants do in an ongoing case. The reason any of this is “controversial” is the Kleins declined to bake a “wedding” cake for two women on religious grounds.
The owners served these women before, so their “orientation” wasn’t the issue.
In the “land of liberty,” they were sued by the lesbians for refusing to celebrate what God calls an abomination and penalized by their government. The business owners were ordered to pay a fine of $135,000. They’re trying to get the order overturned. From Reuters:
An attorney representing the Kleins, Herb Grey, said the couple has raised far less than $500,000, but declined to give an exact number. He also said they should not be obligated to pay the damages because the case is not settled.
“They continue to stand on their well-established constitutional rights to live and work based on their values and beliefs,” Grey said. “Religion is a protected class just like sexual orientation is.”
Grey said he expects the appeal to be heard in the spring.
How will things end for the Kleins? Only God knows for certain. Whatever happens, He will be glorified.
This lawsuit should not be fought on religious grounds. It should be fought on an objective definition of “right”: a freedom of action that does not interfere with the freedom of action of another. The Kleins interfere with no ones’ right by refusing to fulfill their request; the requestee is free to go elsewhere for their cake. The requestee *is* interfering with the Kleins by forcing them to waste their time, effort, energy and resources to defend themselves against an attempted violation of *their* freedom to run their business as they choose. This is true only of private enterprise. No government employee whose salary is paid by taxpayer money has the freedom to discriminate against any taxpayer on religious grounds. As soon as her employer decided she must do what she considers sinful, her only rightful choices were to do it, or resign and find employment elsewhere. Her fight is not righteous and she should lose. The Kleins’ fight *is* righteous and they should win. Sadly, it’s almost certain that they’ll lose.