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Stop Arguing for Religious Liberty and Start Arguing Against Religious Discrimination


COMMENTARY BY: AUGUSTE MEYRAT | MARCH 28, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/28/stop-arguing-for-religious-liberty-and-start-arguing-against-religious-discrimination/

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For an increasingly secular populace, actions and policies must be defended on the basis of reason much more than faith.

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In a recent legal settlement, Catholic Charities West Michigan successfully challenged Michigan’s decision to bar state funds to adoption agencies that do not serve same-sex couples. The settlement forced Michigan to reimburse the charity for its legal fees and other costs. Using an argument that has now become familiar to most Americans, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a lesbian mother of two and former gay rights activist, charged Catholic adoption agencies with discriminating against same-sex couples. In response, the Catholic adoption agencies used the same logic, accusing the Michigan state government of discriminating against Catholics and effectively denying them their religious freedom.

While Christians should celebrate this recent victory, it’s nonetheless sad this appeal had to be made. When gay marriage was legalized in Obergfell v. Hodges, Christians were assured that they could practice their faith and live out their values in peace, but this was almost immediately proven wrong. As the ink of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion was drying, LGBT groups immediately went after Christian bakersfloristsphotographers, popular chicken sandwich chains, and other Christian organizations for their religious beliefs.

Defense Based on Reason not Faith

This war will continue so long as Christians keep using the religious freedom defense. Even though this argument has the best chance of winning in legal courts, it is unconvincing in the court of public opinion. As more Americans drift away from Christianity, they increasingly view this defense for denying service to same-sex couples not as a valid objection, but as a childish copout: “The Christian God doesn’t like gay people.”

Rather, it’s important to establish that most Christian churches are established on natural law (that is, moral laws based on objective truth) as much as the Bible. To be sure, faith and reason both matter enormously, but for an increasingly secular populace, actions and policies must be defended on the basis of reason much more than faith.

This has been the case with abortion, with the pro-life position steadily gaining popular support as it has adopted more reason-based arguments. The pro-life movement has grown because it has argued that unborn babies are people, and therefore abortion is murder. Although the Bible acknowledges this argument, the argument itself isn’t strictly based on the Bible.

Reasons Against Same-Sex Couples Adopting

Similarly, in issues involving marriage and children, Christians need to appeal to reason more than their faith. In the case of same-sex couples adopting, two issues need to be addressed. First, do all couples have a right to adopt a child? Second, do children have a right to a father and mother?

Concerning whether all couples have a right to adopt, the answer is that they do not. As any couple who has gone through the process of adoption understands all too well, many screenings and conditions have to be met. Someone from the adoption agency will inspect their home, rifle through their personal information, interview them and others, and then, after so many legal hurdles, possibly allow a child to live with them. Even then, the biological parent may change his or her mind and take back the child.

As painful and expensive as this process is, it is necessary because children are human beings with rights of their own, not objects a couple acquires out of boredom or simply some charitable impulse. Consequently, adoption agencies must discriminate among couples wanting to adopt, only selecting those who meet the criteria of good caretakers.

A Right to a Mother and Father?

This leads to the second issue of whether a child’s rights include having a mother and father, as opposed to two fathers or two mothers. The science on this is mixed, both because it’s a politically charged issue and because it’s a difficult thing to measure. One may say that a loving committed couple is enough, but one may contend that a loving committed heterosexual couple is necessary.

Katy Faust persuasively argues this latter view in her excellent book “Them Before Us.” She explains that men and women represent two distinct and essential supports to a child growing up; fatherhood and motherhood are not interchangeable or dispensable. Furthermore, she argues that a child does best with his or her biological parents in nearly all cases. For Faust, adoption is an alternative that should only be considered in cases of serious abuse or neglect.

Not only does Faust support her argument with a multitude of studies, but she has both a homosexual parent and an adopted child. Even though her situation would suggest that same-sex adoption should be treated the same as any other parental arrangement, her reasoning leads her to think otherwise.

Faust’s example is a good model for all Christians trying to serve their community in accordance with their values. Whatever charitable work they do — whether it is finding homes for orphans or allowing those orphans to be born in the first place — it is done for the person in need, first and foremost. This is not a political or religious issue, but a human one.

It is not a coincidence that this means they are doing God’s will in the process. Contrary to what opponents claim, Christian values are based on objective truth, not blind faith to various Bronze Age prejudices. As such, the goal is not about winning, but about making the world a better place.


Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Conservative, and The Imaginative Conservative, as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Follow him on Twitter.

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Masterpiece Cakeshop Hit With A THIRD ‘Discrimination’ Lawsuit


Written by K. Walker on June 11, 2019

URL of the original posting site: https://clashdaily.com/2019/06/masterpiece-cakeshop-hit-with-a-third-discrimination-lawsuit/

At what point does this become harassment of Jack Phillips for his religious views?

A new lawsuit has been filed against Masterpiece Cakeshop according to CBS 4 Denver. This is the third time that baker Jack Phillips has been sued for “discrimination” for refusing to bake and decorate cakes that are against his traditional, Christian views.

The latest lawsuit has been filed by Autumn Scardina, who has a bit of a history with Phillips.

Scardina, a local transgender woman and, (according to Newsweek, a lawyer,) had been contacting the bakery run by the devout Christian to request cakes that would be deliberately offensive. Jack Phillips believes that Scardina has done so several times.

The first instance was the day of the Supreme Court decision that was 7-2 in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop. That lawsuit was filed by Phillips against a Colorado “Human Rights Commission” that punished him for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

That day, Masterpiece Cakeshop received a request for a birthday cake for Scardina, but with a catch. The cake was to be pink on the inside with blue frosting to celebrate Scardina’s transgender identity. Scardina’s lawyer called the cake a simple birthday cake on Thursday, but previous reports indicate that the cake was to celebrate a gender transition.

Another request on the same day (which Phillips believes was also Scardina,) was from a “member of the church of Satan” requesting a cake to celebrate Satan’s birthday.

“I’m thinking a three-tiered white cake. Cheesecake frosting,” the customer wrote in the June 4 email, according to Phillips’ lawsuit filed in Denver’s federal court on Tuesday. “And the topper should be a large figure of Satan, licking a 9” black Dildo. I would like the dildo to be an actual working model, that can be turned on before we unveil the cake.”

The email continued: “I can provide it for you if you don’t have the means to procure it yourself,” according to the civil complaint.

Philips “politely declined.”

“Cheesecake frosting” in itself is a bizarre request, but the rest of it is just over the top cray-cray.

Newsweek queried other local bakeries and found that all but one would refuse to bake the Satan cake.

Weeks after the three-tiered “Satan licking a dildo” cake request, two people entered the shop asking for a cake with a pentagram on it. When Phillips asked for a name one individual said, “Autumn Marie” which leads Phillips to think that this is a form of harassment.

Phillips said that these types of requests for cakes are increasing.

Last September, Phillips received an email requesting a cake for Satan’s birthday to include “red-and -lack icing” and “an upside-down cross under the head of Lucifer,” the complaint states.

Phillips answered back saying he was not going to bake it because it would have “expressed messages in violation of his religious beliefs,” according to the complaint.

Then came another order by telephone.

The complaint suggests that Phillips took note of the “caller-identification screen” reading “Scardina.”

In that call, the complaint states, Phillips “believes that the caller was Autumn Scardina” who wanted a red-and-black theme cake with “an image of Satan smoking marijuana.”

Source: Newsweek

It is unclear what baked item is the center of this third lawsuit, but it seems to be pretty clear the types of items that Scardina has requested in the past.

CBS 4 Denver reports that the latest lawsuit was filed on Wednesday on behalf of Autumn Scardina by attorneys Paula Greisen and John McHugh. Clearly, Scardina is upset that the previous lawsuit was dismissed.

“The second round was dismissed, frankly, without our input,” Greisen told CBS4. “They disregarded Ms. Scardina and the merits of her claim.”

The newest lawsuit claims Phillips discriminated against Scardina and used deceptive and unfair trade practices.

“The dignity of all citizens in our state needs to be honored. Masterpiece Cakeshop said before the Supreme Court they would serve any baked good to members of the LGBTQ community. It was just the religious significance of it being a wedding cake,” Griesen said. “We don’t believe they’ve been honest with the public.”

The previous lawsuit filed by Scardina as well as this one cites that during the original litigation regarding the same-sex wedding cake, Jack Philips said that he would make “any” cake for an LGBT client except for a wedding cake. This is completely disingenuous, as Phillips has repeatedly stated that there are several types of items that he will not make because they violate his religious convictions.

A formal statement was later distributed on his behalf by Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Jim Campbell, whose firm represented Phillips in the Supreme Court case:

“A new lawsuit has been filed against Masterpiece Cakeshop that appears to largely rehash old claims. The State of Colorado abandoned similar ones just a few months ago. So this latest attack by Scardina looks like yet another desperate attempt to harass cake artist Jack Phillips. And it stumbles over the one detail that matters most: Jack serves everyone; he just cannot express all messages through his custom cakes.”

Source: CBS 4 Denver

This latest lawsuit requests a trial by jury and would bypass the state of Colorado, which the Supreme Court decision found had been harassing Phillips for his religious views via the “Human Rights Commission” decisions against him.

Watch the news report:

This should be interesting. The Supreme Court had skirted the main issue of opposing rights, but it seems that activists want a clear decision on the ability to suppress religious views when it is convenient. This is a very important case where religious freedoms are concerned.

Stay tuned for updates.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ClashDaily’s Associate Editor since August 2016. Self-described political junkie, anti-Third Wave Feminist, and a nightmare to the ‘intersectional’ crowd. Mrs. Walker has taken a stand against ‘white privilege’ education in public schools. She’s also an amateur Playwright, occasional Drama teacher, and staunch defender of the Oxford comma. Follow her humble musings on Twitter: @TheMrsKnowItAll

New charges vs. Colo. Christian baker after his SCOTUS win


Reported by Michael F. Haverluck (OneNewsNow.com) | Sunday, October 14, 2018

Jack Phillips (Colo. baker - concerned look)Renewed discrimination charges against Christian baker Jack Phillips have been waged in federal court – despite his victory in the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) this summer allowing him to decline making a pro-LGBT “wedding cake” – as the state of Colorado is now arguing that the replacement of members in its Civil Rights Commission gives it the right to resuscitate its attack.

“Now, the state is issuing new charges against Phillips for refusing to create a cake celebrating a ‘gender transition,’ ignoring evidence that Phillips accepts all customers while refusing to create messages that violate his religious beliefs,” WND reported. “Phillips has responded with a lawsuit contending his constitutional rights have been violated.”

Does Colo. have it all wrong… again?

Before the Supreme Court corrected the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s (CCRC) ruling – which found that Philips was merely acting upon his religious convictions protected by the U.S. Constitution – the original Colorado panel concluded that his bakery should have been forced to bake a same-sex couple a wedding cake – or be shut down.

“The commission found that Jack Phillips – the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop – discriminated against a same-sex couple by refusing to bake a cake for their wedding,” WND recounted. “The Supreme Court reversed the decision in a 7-2 ruling in June on narrow grounds – concluding the commission did not employ religious neutrality, violating Phillips’ rights to free exercise of religion.”

The controversy is being reignited with a new spin – as the commission is now using a transgender cake instead of a “gay” wedding cake to gain a new brand of sympathy in the name of “equality,” “tolerance” and “anti-discrimination” movement pushing transgenderism.

“The Colorado Civil Rights Commission has been under scrutiny since the Supreme Court ruled in June that it showed ‘clear and impermissible hostility,’ towards Phillips, [as] the high court ruled the commission was wrong for being overtly hostile to him,” CBN News noted. “Phillips argued that he did not discriminate when he refused to bake a gay wedding cake after the commission said he did.”

No – not again …

After its renewed challenge on Masterpiece Cakeshop’s owner, Dr. Dobson Family Policy Institute’s Jenna Ellis argued that CCRC is just proving that it should be dissolved once and for all so that it does not continue to overstep its authority in America’s court system.

“The Colorado Civil Rights Commission is not a court of law,” Ellis told CBN News in an interview. “This is not where you have a judge and a jury and actual due process.”

She said CCRC’s panel merely promotes the political agenda of elected officials in office – who currently advocate special LGBT “rights” and privileges.

“They are a commission that is just appointed by the governor,” the conservative Christian whose organization is based in Colorado explained. “These are commissioners that don’t have to even be attorneys, and what they’re doing is making ‘findings of fact’ and ‘conclusions of law’ outside of due process.”

It was then argued that CCRC simply uses an unfair advantage it has against Phillips to push its pro-LGBT agenda – one that is championed by a majority of commissioners on the panel.

“So Phillips can’t opt out of this commission – he doesn’t have the right to a jury,” Ellis added. “The only thing that they have to do to be appointed as a commissioner is to be part of a traditionally discriminated class.”

In an earlier plea, Dr. James Dobson himself demanded that CCRC should be held accountable and radically changed – if it is allowed to exist.

“The state’s second prosecution of Phillips prompted James Dobson – the noted Christian psychologist and founder of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute – to call for reform of the commission, decrying the new claim as ‘a continued attack on the First Amendment and religious freedom,’” WND noted.

Bringing the DOJ into it …

More suspicion of CCRC’s recent problematic move abounds, as WND reports that a Colorado congressman recently called upon the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the state commission for its questionable behavior.

The additional intervention was requested by Rep. Dough Lamborn (R-Colo.), who asked U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into the matter with CCRC.

“Both Mr. Phillips and Masterpiece serve everyone,” Lamborn asserted, according to CBN News. “All people – no matter who they are, what they believe or what protected class they belong to – are welcome in Mr. Phillips’ shop and may purchase anything available for sale, but as a devout Christian, Mr. Phillips cannot create custom cakes the express messages or that celebrate events in conflict with his deeply held religious beliefs.”

The congressman went on to press his argument that the government should not be allowed to quash the creativity and religious rights of Phillips just to bulldoze forward the LGBT agenda.

“We are stronger as a nation because of the societal contribution of religious Americans like Jack Phillips,” Lamborn continued. “Mr. Phillips and other creative professionals should not be targeted by the government for living consistently with their deeply held beliefs just because an agency director or the government doesn’t like those beliefs.”

After SCOTUS justices scolded the state of Colorado for its “hostility” toward Phillips and other Christians, CCRC jumped back on the saddle and is upping its attack on the already beleaguered baker and trying to justify its new charges.

“But Colorado officials now are asking the court to dismiss Phillips’ claims against them, arguing that since the old members of the commission are gone, the new ones have a restored authority to prosecute Phillips,” WND pointed out. “The state argued the complaint ‘does not allege that any commissioner who is named as a defendant here was also serving as a commissioner when the commission finally decided the 2012 discrimination charge and defended that decision in the Masterpiece I appeals.’”

The bakery owner countered his state with strong arguments of his own, which were naturally discounted by CCRC.

“Phillips’ lawsuit cites the fact that the commission refused to prosecute several homosexual bakers who were given permission to refuse to create a cake with a Bible message that violated their beliefs,” WND added. “But the state says those decisions also were made by previous commissioners, so it should have no ramification on the state’s current prosecution of Phillips.”

The state of Colorado essentially believes and argues that it is above the law.

“The civil rights commission insisted it has immunity to claims for damages, [as it] claims it can order people to violate their faith through its orders to ban ‘discrimination in all places of public accommodation,’ but it doesn’t address the fact that Phillips repeatedly has confirmed he will serve all customers, but has a First Amendment right to free speech,” WND informed. “The commission finding equates ‘products,’ which all persons must be given access to, with ‘messages,’ which are protected by the First Amendment – [and it] argues over and over that it can escape liability because its members changed.”

Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Kristen Waggoner – whose nonprofit Christian legal firm worked on Phillips’ behalf – explained how CCRC is overtly refusing to accept what SCOTUS has already determined.

“[The state] is ignoring the message of the U.S. Supreme Court by continuing to single out Jack for punishment and to exhibit hostility toward his religious beliefs, Waggoner argued, according to WND. “Even though Jack serves all customers and simply declines to create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events in violation of his deeply held beliefs, the government is intent on destroying him – something the Supreme Court has already told it not to do.”

Listen to the nation’s highest court already …

SCOTUS’s June ruling on the matter in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop clearly makes the argument for Phillips to bake and run his business according to his own sincerely held religious beliefs – without fear of punishment by the government.

“The laws and the Constitution can – and in some instances must – protect gay persons and gay couples in the exercise of their civil rights, but religious and philosophical objections to gay marriage are protected views, and in some instances protected forms of expression,” the SCOTUS decision reads. “While it is unexceptional that Colorado law can protect gay persons in acquiring products and services on the same terms and conditions as are offered to other members of the public, the law must be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion.”

Recently outgoing SCOTUS Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy – who was recently replaced by SCOTUS Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh – sided with Phillips in the ruling.

“Justice Anthony Kennedy said when the Colorado Civil Rights Commission made its decision, ‘it did not do so with the religious neutrality that the Constitution requires,’” Fox News recounted“The opinion says the Commission ‘violated the Free Exercise Clause – and its order must be set aside.’”

Colorado Targets Christian Baker Again Despite Supreme Court’s Cake Ruling


“The state is doubling down on its hostility against my beliefs, even though that’s what the Supreme Court said they couldn’t do,” says cake artist Jack Phillips, pictured Sept. 21 working on a custom cake in his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado. (Photo: Rick Wilking/Reuters/Newscom)

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission is going after Christian baker Jack Phillips again, although the Masterpiece Cakeshop owner won a resounding 7-2 decision in June before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state commission moved against Phillips after a lawyer asked him to design and bake a custom cake celebrating a gender transition, pink on the inside and blue on the outside.

Phillips, who calls himself a cake artist, said the requested cake’s message would violate his religious beliefs.

“The state is doubling down on its hostility against my beliefs, even though that’s what the Supreme Court said they couldn’t do,” Phillips said in a prepared statement released by his lawyers. “It seems I’m the only person in the state of Colorado who can’t live out my beliefs.”

The religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has represented Phillips since he turned down a gay couple’s order six years ago for a cake celebrating their marriage, also represents him in a federal lawsuit filed late Tuesday to challenge the latest state action against him.

Shortly after its Supreme Court loss, the state Civil Rights Commission informed Phillips that it found probable cause to believe that Colorado law requires his bakery in Lakewood to create the requested gender-transition cake.

“I serve all customers,” Phillips said once again in his formal statement. “I simply decline to create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events in violation of my deeply held beliefs.”

According to Alliance Defending Freedom, a lawyer identified as Autumn Scardina asked Masterpiece Cakeshop to bake the gender-transition cake on June 26, 2017. That was the same day the Supreme Court agreed to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the case involving the wedding cake.

“We told him we’d sell him anything in the shop, but we could not create that cake because of the message it conveyed, Phillips said of the lawyer’s request for the pink and blue cake.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, in an opinion joined by four conservative justices and two liberal justices, ruled nearly a year later, on June 4, that the Civil Rights Commission showed “hostility” toward Phillips and his faith in deciding he had violated state anti-discrimination law by declining to create the cake marking the same-sex marriage.

“It’s clear that the state of Colorado did not get the message from the Supreme Court, since it is still singling out Jack for punishment and showing hostility toward his religious beliefs,” Kristen Waggoner, senior vice president for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a formal statement.

Scardina, the lawyer who requested the cake celebrating a gender transition, is not a defendant in Phillips’ lawsuit. The baker is suing the state commission’s members in their official capacities, as well as suing its director personally.

“In moving ahead on this new complaint, the government is yet again confirming that it applies its law in an arbitrary and unequal way, which the Supreme Court has already said that it cannot do,” Waggoner, who argued Phillips’ case Dec. 5 before the high court, said.

“Jack and other creative professionals should not be targeted by the government for living consistently with their religious beliefs,” she said.

As a policy, Phillips’ lawyers note, Masterpiece Cakeshop also does not make custom cakes that celebrate Halloween; that center on alcohol or drug abuse or sexual themes; or that convey disparaging messages, including those targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals or others in the LGBT movement.

Phillips said:

The Bible tells us God created us male and female, and I believe that. A gender-transition cake is not something I’ve ever made, and it’s not an event I could celebrate. There are plenty of messages I won’t convey on a cake. I’ve turned down requests to make anti-American cakes, cakes disparaging the LGBT community, as well as those glorifying drug and alcohol use, mistreatment of women, divorce, and more.

In the case Phillips won before the Supreme Court, his lawyers stress, the state of Colorado admitted that cake artists are free to decline to create custom cakes with a “specific design,” including wedding cakes with “a symbol of gay pride,” cakes that contain “pro-gay designs or inscriptions,” or cakes with images opposing same-sex marriage.

The state has not found probable cause when other bakers refused to create custom cakes, including those opposing same-sex weddings.

“The arbitrary basis on which the commission is applying the law makes it clear that they are simply targeting Jack because they don’t like his religious beliefs,” Waggoner said. “Jack shouldn’t have to fear government hostility when he opens his shop for business each day. We’re asking the court to put a stop to that.”

This report has been updated to include the name of the lawyer who requested the “gender transition” cake.

Fund Aims to Help Christian Baker Offset Wedding Cake Losses


waving flagPosted  by Ken McIntyre / / August 16, 2015

Jack Phillips says he has lost 40 percent of his business since he stopped making all wedding cakes rather than design them for same-sex weddings. (Photo: CBS4, KCNC-TV Denver)

Family and friends of a Christian cake designer hope to help him with a fundraising campaign after a Colorado court ruled Thursday that he must create cakes for same-sex weddings despite his religious beliefs. “Cake artist” Jack Phillips has said his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, has lost more than a third of its receipts since he stopped making all wedding cakes while the case makes its way through the legal system. “We hope it will relieve some of the financial pressure on Jack,” his brother-in-law, Jim Sander, said of the new fundraising effort in a phone interview Friday with The Daily Signal. “A business that has a 10 percent loss is a big deal in the Wall Street Journal. So a 40 percent loss is a big hit.”

>>> Christian Baker Must Make Cakes Celebrating Gay Marriage, Appeals Court Rules

 Big Gay Hate Machine

Sander said the “crowdfunding” campaign, through the website Continue to Give, a Christian-oriented service, went online Thursday afternoon—hours after the Colorado Court of Appeals decided Phillips and his business must provide cakes for gay marriages.

The mission: Financially support Phillips, 59, and “protect his freedom of speech and freedom of religion.” The goal: Raise $200,000.

Those who go to the “Support Jack Phillips” site may contribute any amount, making their names and size of donation public or keeping either private. Givers also may leave encouraging messages for Phillips.

The first contributions began to trickle in Thursday night. As of 4 p.m. Sunday, the site had logged 17 donations.

150814_ColoBaker_McIntyre

One of the first, for $100, came with the message: “We appreciate you fighting this battle for the free speech of everyone.”Free Speech Definition

Another contributor wrote: “You are fighting the good fight and I hope you take it all the way to the Supremes. Free exercise of religion must be protected. You cannot take a right from one to give to another and call that justice.”

Jennifer and Keith Lorensen left this message: “We have been following your case for some time and want you to know you are in our thoughts and prayers.”

They also quoted Joshua 1:9, an Old Testament passage: Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Phillips has maintained that his Christian beliefs would be violated if he were compelled to use his artistic talents to express the message that marriage is something other than the union of a man and a woman. Sander, 63, emailed The Daily Signal after reading its report on the appeals court decision, saying a “Support Jack Phillips” page was up and running.

>>> Christian Baker Makes Case for Not Expressing Support for Same-Sex Marriage

Sander, a professor of accounting in Indianapolis, said he has known his brother-in-law for more than 40 years. He said he and other family members set up and composed the text for the campaign. Most involved were his wife Linda, an adult son, and Phillips’s other sister, Trish.

A summary describes ongoing threats and harassment that Phillips and his small staff endured beginning 20 minutes after the “less than 30 seconds” in July 2012 during which he declined to create a wedding cake for the two gay men who later sued him.  He also offered to sell them brownies, cookies or other confections.

Soon his shop was inundated by phone calls and emails saying “vile, hateful things about Jack—and about Jesus.” The summary adds:

These attacks are intended to drive Jack out of business. To avoid further harassment and lawsuits and because of the ruling, he has chosen to follow a law that takes away his freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and he has stopped making wedding cakes while his case goes through the courts.

150814_ColoBaker_2_McIntyre

Gaystopo logoThe summary notes statements, some by public officials such as state Human Rights Commissioner Diann Rice, comparing Phillips to a slave owner or to German Nazis who carried out the Holocaust:

During WWII, Jack’s dad, Wayne Phillips, actually fought the Nazis all the way through France and Germany including the D-Day landing and the Battle of the Bulge. He was wounded by the Nazis and received a Purple Heart. He assisted in the liberation of Buchenwald, a concentration camp.

Sander, who says he and his wife also are Christians, describes his brother-in-law as open and giving. “He’s always straightforward,” Sander said. “There’s never any games with him. He’s easygoing. He’d give you the shirt off his back to be helpful. I’d say he’s pretty generous.”

Sander added:

Unfortunately, from the government’s point of view, he tries to live out his Christian life outside the one or two hours he’s within the chapel walls. … [His faith] guides everything he does.

After losing the first legal round with Colorado’s civil rights agency in 2013, Phillips decided to stop making all wedding cakes rather than be compelled to create them for same-sex weddings. “He said OK, if that’s the rule, then I won’t make any wedding cakes at all,” Sander recalled.Hate Merchants

A three-judge panel of the appeals court Thursday upheld previous rulings that Phillips broke state law against discrimination based on sexual orientation. That essentially was the argument made by the gay couple’s lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Phillips argued that compelling him to create a cake celebrating same-sex marriage violated not only his First Amendment right to freedom of religion but also to free speech or expression. The court rejected that argument.

>>> For more on religious liberty and same-sex marriage, see Ryan T. Anderson’s new book, “Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom.”

Phillips is represented by lawyers with the Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom. They said Phillips likely will appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court and—if necessary—the U.S. Supreme Court. By continuing to fight, Phillips hopes to avoid orders to “re-educate” employees—including his grown daughter—and report regularly to the state.Picture2

Jack Phillips at his Masterpiece Cakeshop. (Photo courtesy Alliance Defending Freedom)

Sander was among family members who helped Phillips and his wife, Debi, open Masterpiece Cakeshop after cleaning and installing used furnishings, equipment and appliances in space at a suburban Denver strip mall in September 1993. Sander said his brother-in-law consistently has declined customers’ requests for certain custom cakes, whether depicting witches and ghosts or sexually suggestive images. “If a straight couple came in and wanted a cake for a same-sex marriage, he would not sell it,” Sander said, adding:

He would not sell that cake to anybody. Who orders the cake is immaterial. … I don’t think it’s an issue of who he’s denying service to, it’s a matter of his not wanting to use his artistic ability in a way that violates his conscience.

The family heard about Continue to Give when, as The Daily Signal has reported, the crowdfunding site helped a Christian couple in Oregon stay afloat financially. Aaron and Melissa Klein face a state fine of $135,000 after their bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, declined to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.burke

Continue to Give describes itself as a “faith-based online tithing and giving platform founded on biblical principles and designed for churches, missionaries, nonprofits, individuals and adopting parents.”

COME ON EVERYONE, LET’S HELP THIS BROTHER IN CHRIST AS MUCH AS WE CAN – Jerry Broussard of WhatDidYouSay.org

In God We Trust freedom combo 2

Court rules in Christian baker’s same-sex marriage case


waving flagPosted By Bob Unruh On 08/13/2015

Article printed from WND: http://www.wnd.com

URL of the original posting site: http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/court-rules-in-christian-bakers-same-sex-marriage-case

SCOTUS GIANT

Three Colorado appeals-court judges endorsed Thursday a lower court’s decision to force a Christian baker, already labeled by a state official as a Nazi, to violate his faith and provide wedding cakes to same-sex couples. The state’s plan also includes indoctrinating bakery workers regarding the treatment of homosexual customers.

The state Court of Appeals opinion by Judge Dan Taubman was joined by Alan Loeb and Mike Berger. They rejected constitutional arguments raised by Alliance Defending Jack-Phillips-Masterpiece-Cakeshop-638x358Freedom attorneys who represented baker Jack Phillips and his Masterpiece Cakeshop. Phillips was targeted by homosexuals who explained they were getting married in another state but wanted a cake in Colorado, where same-sex marriage at the time was not legal. The court opinion notes Phillips said his bakery accepts customers regardless of sexual orientation but does not make cakes for same-sex wedding ceremonies. Nevertheless, the homosexual duo, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, filed a complaint with the state, which ruled against the bakery. One official compared Phillips and his cakeshop to Nazis.Gaystopo logo

That was when Diann Rice, a member of the state civil rights commission, said: “I would also like to reiterate what we said in the hearing or the last meeting. Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust, whether it be – I mean, we – we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to – to use their religion to hurt others.” Combined

<div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div>want_rel_liberty_rADF had argued to the Colorado Court of Appeals: “Such alarming bias and animus toward Phillips’s religious beliefs, and toward religion in general, has no place in civil society. At least one commission member holds such beliefs. And her comment suggests that other members of the commission may share her view that people who believe marriage is only between a man and a woman are comparable to those who committed the Holocaust. This anti-religious bias undermines the integrity of the commission’s process and final order.” The appeals court judges ignored the bias charge.

See the Big List of Christian Coercion compiled by WND, where officials, business owners and others have been bludgeoned by the law, activists – even judges – for their faith.

And while the court admitted the case “juxtaposes” the rights of the homosexuals to those of Phillips, it concluded that Phillips’ rights are secondary to the rights of homosexuals to buy a wedding cake wherever they choose. The state commission ruled that Masterpiece discriminated inappropriately and ordered Phillips to stop. The state also demanded he “take remedial measures, including comprehensive staff training and alteration to the company’s policies.” Further, the state is requiring him to file reports for two years proving his compliance with the state-endorsed homosexual advocacy.Picture2

ADF spokesman Jeremy Tedesco said: “Americans are guaranteed the freedom to live and work consistent with their faith. Government has a duty to protect people’s freedom to follow their beliefs personally and professionally rather than force them to adopt the government’s views. Jack 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.” The appeals court judges adopted the lower court’s determination line by line.

Specifically, the court said the concern that the bakery would be viewed as endorsing homosexuality was negligible. Taubman said Phillips case differs from another in which the state of Colorado allowed a bakery featuring sexually explicit products to refuse to create two “Bible-shaped cakes inscribed with … ‘homosexuality is a detestable sin. Leviticus 18:2.'” Taubman argued the other case centered on “offensive” messages inscribed on the cake, unlike the Phillips case. “We recognize that a wedding cake, in some circumstances, may convey a particularized message celebrating same-sex marriage and, in such cases, First Amendment speech protections may be implicated,” Taubman wrote. But he said that issue would not be addressed now.Free Speech Definition

The Masterpiece business, Taubman said, “is not sufficiently expressive to warrant First Amendment protections.”No Free Speech

He likened objecting to the promotion of same-sex relationships on biblical grounds to racism. “As one court observed in addressing a similar free exercise challenge to the 1964 Civil Rights Act: ‘Undoubtedly defendant … has a constitutional right to espouse the religious beliefs of his own choosing, however, he does not have the absolute right to exercise and practice such beliefs in utter disregard of the clear constitutional rights of other citizens. This court refuses to lend credence or support to his position that he has a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of the Negro race in his business establishment upon the ground that to do so would violate his sacred religious beliefs.'” The court claimed the law is neutral, generally applicable and “does not impose burdens on religious conduct not imposed on secular conduct.”Leftist determonation to destroy freedom of religion

Phillips attorneys argued their client “did not decline to design and create complainants’ wedding cake because of their sexual orientation, but because of the message about same-sex marriage they wished to convey, which is deeply at odds with his religious beliefs.” … “Phillips does not object to, nor does he refuse to serve, homosexuals.”

The original order was from Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer.

WND also reported when Theodore Shoebat of the Shoebat.com website reported calling 13 prominent pro-“gay” bakers and asking them to make a cake with the message “Gay marriage is wrong.” “Each one denied us service, and even used deviant insults and obscenities against us,” he said. “One baker even said that she would make me a cookie with a large phallus on it just to insult us because we are Christian. We recorded all of this in a video that will stun the American people as to how militant and intolerant the homosexual bakers were,” said Shoebat. Shoebat said that after the experiment, he received “a ton of hate messages saying that we were ‘hateful’ for simply giving them a taste of their own medicine.”persecution-persecuted-christians

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