The Daily Signal ran an article this week about cake artist Jack Phillips from Colorado who was told in August by the Colorado Court of Appeals that his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop was required to bake cakes for same-sex wedding celebrations even though it violates his personal views on marriage.
“The freedom to live and work consistently with one’s faith is at the heart of what it means to be an American,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Jeremy Tedesco said in a statement. “Jack simply exercised the long-cherished American freedom to decline to use his artistic talents to promote a message with which he disagrees.”
The American Civil Liberties Union attorney defending the same-sex couple said, “In America, no one should be turned away from a shop or restaurant because of who they are or who they love,” however, this message is complicated by the fact that bakers in Colorado have been freely allowed to turn away people if they order cakes opposing same-sex marriage.
“In Colorado bakers can refuse to make cakes with a message opposing same-sex unions, but can be fined out of business if they decline to bake cakes celebrating same-sex unions,” Roger Severino, director of The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, said. “There is something wrong when government respects the freedom of some to run their businesses according to their values while targeting others, especially people of faith, with lawsuits, penalties, and fines.”
In April, Alliance Defending Freedom pointed out that three Denver bakerieswere not found guilty of discrimination when a Christian customer was declined a cake that reflected opposition to same-sex marriage, a view that violated the conscience of those cake artists.
To read the full article on The Daily Signal, click here.
Linda EApril 11, 2019
Who ever said running a business requires one to to do things according to some one else's ideals? Strip clubs offend me, should i require them to stop stripping so I can feel comfortable eating there? Or just choose to not visit their establishment and go some where they suits my views? Think about it :)
JohnNovember 1, 2015
Here is my thought. If a Jew opens a Bakery to the public, and then a skinhead comes in and asks for a cake celebrating the Holocaust, it would be a legal transaction, and the Jew would be obligated, by virtue of having a business open to the Public, to make it for him, and the Jew/Mormon/Republican business owner should consider those things before going into business. It wasn't too long ago that white businesses in the South refused to serve people that were objectionable to them. Allowing business owners to discriminate among their clients somehow doesn't seem right, but I understand your tyranny comment.