About this time of year, back in 2013, I wrote my replies to some discussion about a cake shop in Lakewood, Colorado. Maybe you heard of Masterpiece Cakes? And its owner, Jack Phillips? He’s the guy who, according to his Christian faith, chose to refuse service to a so-called “gay couple.”
And by “refuse service,” I mean he didn’t wanna bake their “wedding cake.”
Here’s what I wrote about it eight years ago. And I think this has even more relevance in 2021, going into 2022. Because Christian business owners and citizens are in danger of losing even more freedom now.
If you’re a business owner, I’d like to point out something I thought would have been blatantly obvious until recently. No one has a right to force you to serve their needs. Regardless of whatever inane laws vacuous government officials might conjure up…you DO have a right to refuse service to anyone.
And what if man-made laws take away your right to refuse service?
I completely understand how our federal, state, and local governments manage to make things like this a “legal” issue. But far too often in our system of government, “legal” parts company with “right and wrong”. Simply calling something legal doesn’t make it right. For example…at one time in our nation’s history only three-fifths of blacks were counted as citizens. It was constitutionally “legal”, but it was most certainly wrong.
I’m saying all this because recently, right here in my own home town, a “legal” issue has arisen as a result of a cake maker exercising a right to refuse service to a “gay couple”. They wanted him to bake them a cake for their so-called civil union ceremony. Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado informed the two men that his Christian worldview doesn’t support “gay marriage” or a “civil union”. The two men fired some insults at Mr. Phillips, left the shop, and eventually filed a discrimination lawsuit.
I found a report on this from a National Public Radio article that popped up in an app on my iPhone. I’ll paste in some of that article, and I’ll give my views in blue.
“…should they be allowed a religious exemption, like churches and some institutions?”
No…religion isn’t the issue. Freedom is.
Just because a guy bakes cakes doesn’t give you or anyone else a “right” to any of those cakes or to force him to bake you one.
“Or a First Amendment free expression to pass a sort of “conscientious objector” status if the job is at odds with their beliefs?”
This comes closer to reality. If a bar owner, who doesn’t give a hoot about Jesus, doesn’t want skinheads coming into his bar…he should have a right to refuse service to them.
~ In his Colorado cake case ruling, Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer acknowledged that some may view the actions of baker Phillips as within his rights as a businessman.
“At first blush,” he wrote, “it may seem reasonable that a private business should be able to refuse service to anyone it chooses.
“This view, however,” Spencer added, “fails to take into account the cost to society and the hurt caused to persons who are denied service simply because of who they are.” ~
And Judge Spencer’s view (also any corresponding “laws”) fails to take into account the cost of lost souls and the hurt caused to persons who are forced to provide service simply because of who THEY are.
“Colorado, like New Mexico, bars discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
In doing so, both states elevate the rights of some over the rights of others. Unjust.
~ For Laura Durso, the issue is one of basic rights.
“There is a steady drumbeat of people understanding fairness in the marketplace,” says Durso, director of LGBT research and communication at the Center for American Progress. “Open a business to serve the public? You have an obligation to serve everyone.” ~
Ms Durso unsurprisingly fails to understand basic rights. Basic rights can be defended equally for everyone. Basic rights are life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness. No one has a “basic right” to force, coerce, or compel someone else to bake them a cake. And “fairness in the marketplace” is a remarkably childish concept. With all the “fairness” you can muster give 100 people the same tools and the same opportunities and the same freedoms. Then watch as, inevitably, some excel while others crash and burn. And no one has an “obligation to serve everyone”. That’s a senseless statement not well thought out.
~ So, what’s the fix? Where is the line, constitutionally?
“That’s the million dollar question,” Gottry says, and one that will have to be answered by state legislatures, or by the Supreme Court.”~
If state legislatures or the Supreme Court are unable to understand the difference between “right” and merely “legal” (which is the case the majority of the time now), we will continue to decline further and further into moral bankruptcy. And don’t deceive yourself into believing morality comes from people, places, or parchment. Morality comes from God…the same God who endowed us with “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
In conclusion, I’d like to say that a free market will almost always determine the course of enterprise. If I determine not to serve a segment of society, and I see my business begin to fail, I should be able to and allowed to make the adjustments…if I’m willing. And If I’m unwilling to make those adjustments, and my business fails, so be it.
Also…If I decide to serve a certain segment of society while denying others…and I’m rewarded with a flourishing business, so be it. The point is…it’s my business. If you can see a better way to do it, and if you’re able to do it, go for it. You’ll either get my business or you won’t. But I won’t be mad at you for being different.
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