Masterpiece Cake Shop owner Jack Phillips in Lakewood, Colorado lost his appeals court case to a gay couple in a fight on whether a wedding cake baker can refuse to provide a cake for a gay wedding because of his religious convictions.
Charlie Craig and David Mullins sued him in 2012 after Phillips refused to make a wedding cake for their celebration. The court found he violated the law preventing businesses from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Phillips appealed the court order arguing that it violated his First Amendment rights. The Colorado Court of Appeals was the latest stop in the three-year legal battle that’s tested the boundaries of religious freedom.
“I think that the ruling is wrong … the constitution guarantees me the right to practice my faith, my religion, anywhere, anytime; there are no restrictions on it,” Phillips said. “It also gives me the right to free speech, anytime, anywhere. I don’t surrender those rights when I open my doors.”
“When a business opens its doors to the public it can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, on the basis of race,” Mark Silverstein with the ACLU said after the ruling. “It can’t pick and choose customers based on who they are.”
There has been a “ton of support, most people are in agreement with us that a business and an American citizen should have the right to what they want to make and what they don’t want to make,” Phillips said.
Unjust laws have often caused the loss of liberty. The Colorado courts have created an exception to the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution; you are entitled to believe, but not entitled to act on those beliefs. This is not freedom of religion if beliefs are confined only to your mind.
Suppose a law comes along that requires forbidding Saturday rest and worship. In this scenario, you would be entitled to believe that Saturday is God’s day of rest and worship, but you would not be able to act on it. This is the equivalent to receiving the mark of the beast in the hand (action), but not in the forehead (belief). America’s Constitution guarantees the freedom to peacefully live out beliefs by your action. Gay rights and its legislative and judicial support has created a new America where religious freedoms are being abridged.
Phillips’ attorney will file the case with the state Supreme Court.
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Revelation 14:9, 10
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