Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
A court in Colorado ruled that a Christian baker’s First Amendment freedom of religion doesn’t exempt him from baking a cake for a homosexual “wedding.”
Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado has been fighting to protect his constitutional right since 2012, when two homosexuals asked him to bake their “wedding” cake. These men must have known Phillips was a Christian. Why ask him? Why not solicit other bakers in the area? The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross searched Google and found 19 other area businesses that sell baked goods.
From the Washington Post:
“[Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act] prohibits places of public accommodations from basing their refusal to serve customers on their sexual orientation, and Masterpiece violated Colorado’s public accommodations law by refusing to create a wedding cake for Craig’s and Mullins’ same-sex wedding celebration,” the ruling states.
The ruling states that Masterpiece “remains free to continue espousing its religious beliefs,” but it is prohibited from “picking and choosing customers based on their sexual orientation” if it wants to remain open to the public.
The court, in its infinite wisdom, purported to tell a Christian that participating in what God calls an abomination “does not convey a celebratory message about same-sex weddings likely to be understood by those who view it.” Isn’t that for the religious individual to decide, even if he serves the public?
Phillips’s counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom, said that his client “simply exercised the long-cherished American freedom to decline to use his artistic talents to promote a message with which he disagrees. The court is wrong to deny Jack his fundamental freedoms. We will discuss further legal options.”
