by George Rasley

 

Back in July of 2012 we told you about Jack Phillips, the baker-owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop in Lakewood, Colorado refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple and ever since than radical homosexuals have been trying to drive him out of business.

The same radical homosexuals that tried to run Jack Phillips out of business also filed a complaint against him with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, where they were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Administrative law judge Robert N. Spence later found that Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cake Shop violated the law when he refused to use his talent and creative energy in the service of homosexuals who wanted him to bake cakes to honor their supposed “marriages.”

Administrative law judge Spence’s finding represented a new and frightening chapter in the Left’s war on Christians because there is a fundamental difference between merely selling, cookies, cakes, brownies and other goods, which Phillips was willing to do, and using your creative energies and talent in the service of something that violates your Christian beliefs.

Were Jack Phillips an atheist and member of the creative elite, such as an artist or a writer and had refused to use his creative talent to serve a cause that violated his beliefs, say maybe decorating a church, no doubt the Left would be quick to stand for his First Amendment rights.

However, Jack Phillips is a working guy — a baker and small business owner — not an artist or writer or other creative talent recognized by the Leftist elite, so in their eyes he can be forced to use his talent in an activity that violates his Christian beliefs.

To force someone to do labor against their will is the very definition of slavery and that is nothing less than what the radical homosexual lobby and their secular liberal allies have been using courts across America to do.

The good news is that Jack Phillips’ case has now reached the Supreme Court of the United States and there is some reason to believe his argument that forcing him to participate in a same-sex wedding in conflict with his religious beliefs received a more positive reception there than it did in Colorado.

Amy Howe, writing for SCOTUSBLOG summed-up the oral arguments this way:

The dispute before the Supreme Court today dates back to 2012, when Charlie Craig and David Mullins went to Masterpiece Cakeshop, a Denver-area bakery, to order a special cake to celebrate their upcoming marriage. But Jack Phillips, the owner of the bakery, refused to make them a cake. Phillips, who describes himself as a “cake artist,” is also a Christian who closes his business on Sundays and refuses to design custom cakes that conflict with his religious beliefs – for example, cakes that contain alcohol, have Halloween themes or celebrate a divorce or same-sex marriage. The Colorado agencies responsible for enforcing the state’s anti-discrimination laws ruled that Phillips’ refusal to provide the custom cake violated those laws and that he had “no free speech right” to turn down Craig and Mullins’ request. They told Phillips that, if he decided to create cakes for opposite-sex weddings, he would also have to create them for same-sex weddings.

An appeals court in Colorado rejected Phillips’ argument that forcing him to make a cake for a same-sex couple would violate his right to free speech and to practice his religion freely, but his argument found more traction at the Supreme Court today.

Ms. Howe noted that, “Although making predictions based on oral argument is always dangerous, it seemed very possible that there are five votes for Phillips among the court’s more conservative justices, even if it is less clear how broadly they will rule.”

As our friend Gary Bauer once observed, “The gay-rights movement is instinctively totalitarian. It seeks nothing less than the total and complete acceptance of gay marriage and the repudiation of marriage as it has existed through all human history and in the traditions of every major world religion. Until that happens, their immediate goal is to try to marginalize anyone who expresses a dissenting view in public.”

Liberals never seem to grasp that the Framers of the Constitution drafted it to protect the freedoms of speech and of religion for a reason.  They wanted to create a new nation where baker Jack Phillips wouldn’t have to make the choice between closing down his business and closing down his beliefs – where tyrants couldn’t destroy him for his faith – and where he would be free to practice his Christian faith in his everyday life as he sees fit and as the Bible commands.

We urge the Supreme Court to protect Jack Phillips and other people of faith from the regime of forced labor that the Far Left and radical homosexual lobby seeks to impose upon all practicing Christians.

 

 Reprinted with permission from ConservativeHQ.com