Remember the Colorado baker who refused to make a gay couple’s wedding cake? The Supreme Court decided this week to hear the case of “Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (CCRC)” this fall term. The very high profile case will require the court to balance religious freedom against bigotry and rights for equal treatment under the law.
Since Trump’s appointment of newest justice Neil Gorsuch, the court has agreed to take on more of these cases it seems.
The incident that sparked a national firestorm started five years ago in the summer of 2012. David Mullins and Charlie Craig went to Lakewood, Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshop to choose a wedding cake. Bakery owner, Jack Phillips, politely told Mullins and Craig that he did not make wedding cakes for same sex marriages because it went against his religious beliefs. The owner offered to make any other cake, such as a birthday cake or other celebration, but a wedding cake for him meant active participation in a ceremony he didn’t believe in.
The couple enlisted the Colorado ACLU to lodge a formal complaint against Phillips. A Colorado court ruled in the couple’s favor, citing a Colorado law that did not allow businesses to withhold services because of sexual orientation. The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of the lower court. Phillips was also ordered to provide training to his employees and provide quarterly reports to the court about how he handled customers.
The Colorado Supreme Court would not hear the case. At this point, conservative legal nonprofit group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) stepped in to help Phillips petition the Supreme Court.
ADF senior legal counsel Jeremy Tedesco said, “We are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure that government understands that its duty is to protect the people’s freedom to follow their beliefs personally and professionally, not force them to violate those beliefs as the price of earning a living.”
David Mullins said, “This has always been about more than a cake. Businesses should not be allowed to violate the law and discriminate against us because of who we are and who we love.” Mullins and Craig are now married; Craig added that they are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case.
Bakery owner Phillips was also asked about the Supreme Court decision, and what his life has been like for the last five years fighting for his case to be heard. His business revenue has declined, and he has even received death threats.
But Phillips said the worst part for him is the hateful comments that have been directed at his wife and daughter, who had nothing to do with the “cake decision”. Phillips said he has to answer his home phone so that his wife and daughter don’t hear the threatening comments from the caller on the other end. “They don’t wait to see who’s on the phone. You pick up the phone, they’re already talking,” Phillips said. Phillips has also gone to great lengths to shield his employees from the negative comments directed at him.
Phillips doesn’t usually speak publicly about the threats he has endured. He is now a grandfather of three and says enough is enough. He is tired of being bombarded with extremely vulgar comments, and is afraid his children or grandchildren will be subjected to it. Comments directed at him include that he “doesn’t deserve to live” or that “Christians should be thrown into the Roman Colosseum with lions.” He has even had a call from a man saying “I know your daughter Lisa works at your bakery.” The man recited driving directions, and said that when he got there, he would proceed to murder all of them. A Colorado Civil Rights Commission spokeswoman compared Phillips to “a perpetrator of the Holocaust”, a comment that was extremely hurtful to Phillips since his own father was a World War II combat veteran who helped liberate a Nazi concentration camp—even though his dad had been severely injured, he kept going.
Phillips said “For this woman to compare standing for my faith and not making a cake to Hitler’s atrocities is just unspeakable.”
Phillips’ attorney Kristen Waggoner says that her client is the only one who has been truly persecuted.
True, religion has been used for centuries to discriminate. But it is also true that Christians are being marginalized in America today. Where will the Supreme Court draw the line? We’ll find out this fall.
~ Christian Patriot Daily