You’ve Heard It Said – Buyers Beware; It’s Also Sellers Beware

Owners of a Colorado bakery are facing years in jail for refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.  According to attorney Nicolle Martin, the owners of a Colorado bakery could face a year in prison for refusing to make a cake for a gay wedding, as reported by Jim Hoft of thegatewaypundit.com.  “The complainants can sue him civilly in the regular courts system or he can potentially be prosecuted by the district attorney for up to twelve months in jail," Martin told Hoft.

In June, advocate.com said the Colorado Attorney General’s office filed a discrimination complaint against the owners of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Denver after the bakers refused to bake a cake for Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, a Denver area gay couple, last year.

Jack Phillips, one of the owners, declined to make the cake citing his Christian beliefs.  “We would close down the bakery before we compromised our beliefs,” he told CBS-KCNC, adding that protests and petitions will not make him change his mind.  The Advocate said the company also refused to cater to a lesbian couple who wanted cupcakes for their ceremony.

Mark Silverstein, legal director for the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which initiated the complaint process for Mullins and Craig, told the AP he respects the bakery owners’ right to their religious beliefs, “but someone’s personal religious beliefs don’t justify breaking the law by discriminating against others in the public sphere,” the Advocate reported.

But defense attorney Martin disagreed, saying the case is about ‘conscience,’ not ‘commerce.’  “I just don’t think that we should heighten one person’s beliefs over and above another person’s beliefs,” she said.

Although same-sex marriage was banned in the Colorado Constitution, civil unions are legal, and, the Huffington Post said in April, voters in Colorado support gay marriage by 51-43 percent.

The Advocate said the Colorado Civil Rights Commission is set to hear the case in September. 

Jesus’ response to a question about taxes (Matthew 22:15-21) teaches us something about how Christians are to related to government.  Jesus taught that we should obey the law of the land insofar as it does not require us to disobey God.

Those who believe in religious liberty had better earnestly pray for a Godly ruling … or the dominos will fall one after another on business owners of religious conscience.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel