Colorado lawmakers are considering new legislation to permit businesses to refuse services that violate the owner's religious or moral beliefs.
“The government should not be able to compel bakers to print things that they disagree with.”UPDATE 4/4/15: Colorado Rules Homosexualists CAN Discriminate Against Christians, but not vice versa (see update article excerpts below)
-- Gordon Klingenschmitt, Colorado state representative (Republican)
UPDATE 4/11/15: Christian Attacked for Placing 'Anti-Gay' Cake Order in Florida
For background, read about Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado who has been persecuted by the State of Colorado for refusing to make a same-sex "wedding" cake that would violate his religious conscience.
Also read about states passing religious liberty laws to protect citizens and their businesses from lawsuits by homosexualists and/or fines by courts, and to ensure the free practice of religion without government interference. In February 2014, the homosexualists exposed their goal to end religious liberty when they descended on Arizona's legislature.
Click headlines below to read previous articles:
Lesbians Attack Immigrant Christian Florida Wedding Planner
North Carolina Christians Lose Jobs for Refusing Same-sex 'Wedding'
New York Christian Farmers Guilty & Fined over 'Gay Wedding'
Pastors Face Fines, Jail for Refusing 'Gay Wedding'
-- From "Complaint: Baker refused to write anti-gay words on cake" by Jessica Oh, KUSA-TV posted at USA Today Network 1/20/15
In March of 2014, a customer named Bill Jack requested several cakes in the shapes of Bibles from the Azucar Bakery in Denver, Colo., according to the bakery owner, Marjorie Silva.
Silva says Jack pulled out a piece of paper with phrases like "God hates gays" and requested her to write them on his cakes.
He wouldn't let employees make a copy of the paper and would not read the words out loud, Silva claims. The bakery owner also says the customer wanted an image of two men holding hands with an "X" on top.
"After I read it, I was like 'No way,'" Silva said. "'We're not doing this. This is just very discriminatory and hateful.'"
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Colorado baker faces complaint for refusing anti-gay message on cake" by The Associated Press 1/22/15
She said she would make the cake, but declined to write his suggested messages on the cake, telling him she would give him icing and a pastry bag so he could write the words himself. Silva said the customer didn't want that.
The case comes as Republicans in Colorado's Legislature talk about changing the state law requiring that businesses serve gays in the wake of a series of incidents where religious business owners rejected orders to celebrate gay weddings. Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg said the new case shows a "clash of values" and argued Colorado's public accommodation law is not working.
"The state shouldn't come in and say to the individual businessman, 'You must violate your religious — and I'll say religious-slash-moral convictions. This baker (Silva), thought that was a violation of their moral convictions. The other baker, which we all know very well because of all the stories, clearly that was a violation of their religious convictions," Lundberg said.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Castle Rock man whose ‘anti-gay’ cake was rejected: ‘I was discriminated against’" by Will C. Holden, KDVR-TV31 (Denver, CO) 1/20/15
In addition to being a state legislator, [Gordon] Klingenschmitt is also an ordained minister and former Navy chaplain who has made suggestions on multiple occasions that President Barack Obama may be possessed by demons. In this case, however, Klingenschmitt said he supports Silva’s right to “not print the Bible on her cakes.”
Klingenschmitt agrees so strongly with Silva, in fact, that he is sponsoring legislation to protect her rights in the state’s current legislative session.
That said, Klingenschmitt was also quick to point out that he also sided with Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips in a similar 2012 incident that was settled in court last year. The only difference between the two cases was that Phillips refused to make a rainbow-layered cake for a Colorado gay couple’s wedding in Massachusetts, citing a religious objection to gay marriage.
This is why, Klingenschmitt said, he is in the early drafting stages of a bill that he hopes will garner bipartisan support for its efforts to “repair an existing flaw in Colorado’s nondiscrimination statues.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Focus on the Family Sides With Colorado Baker Who Refused to Bake 'God Hates Gays' Cake" by Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter 1/21/15
Jeff Johnston, issues analyst with the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post that he sided with the pro-gay bakery on the grounds of First Amendment rights.
"This is a free speech issue, and we support freedom of speech. It's also a religious or conscience issue — the government should not force people to violate their core beliefs," said Johnston.
"Just as a Christian baker should not be required to create a cake for a same-sex ceremony, this baker should not be required to create a cake with a message that goes against her conscience."
Azucar is not the first bakery to find itself in legal trouble over expression regarding homosexuality, but it might be the first to face possible legal action for refusing to cater to anti-gay sentiments.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
UPDATE 4/4/15: From "Colorado bakery that refused to bake anti-gay cakes did not discriminate, state agency says" by Peter Holley, Washington Post
. . . the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies . . . ruled that the Azucar Bakery was within its rights when employees refused to carry out an order from customer William Jack in March 2014, according to the Denver Post.
Marjorie Silva, the bakery’s owner, agreed to make the cakes but refused to put the ant-gay imagery on them, according to the AP.
Not long after her refusal, Silva said she received notice from the state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies that she was the subject of a religious discrimination complaint.
While Jack argued that he had been discriminated against for being Christian, the department’s decision said evidence showed Silva refused to bake the cakes because the customer’s requests included “derogatory language and imagery.” . . .
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
UPDATE 4/4/15: From "'Gay' cakes protected, anti-'gay' cakes not" posted at World Net Daily
Last week, the state agency ruled that Denver’s Azucar Bakery did not discriminate against William Jack, a Christian from Castle Rock, by refusing to make two cakes with “groomsmen” X’d out and . . . the following Bible verses: “God hates sin. Psalm 45:7,” “Homosexuality is a detestable sin. Leviticus 18:2,” “God loves sinners” and “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.”
He told the civil rights agency he ordered the cakes with the imagery and biblical verses to convey that same-sex marriage is, in his words, “un-biblical and inappropriate.”
“I find it offensive that the Colorado Civil Rights Division considers the baker’s claims that Bible verses were discriminatory as the reason for denying my claim,” Jack told 7NEWS on Saturday. “I find it offensive that the legal director of the Colorado division of the ACLU called the Bible verses on the cakes obscenities. Especially at this time on the church calendar – Holy Week – I find it offensive that the Bible is censored from the public arena.”
Jack said he is in the process of filing an appeal with the Colorado Civil Rights Division.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
PBS NewsHour report on Masterpiece Cakeshop (1/21/15 video):
Also read Gay Agenda will be Complete when Christians are Muzzled, Say Homosexualists as well as Senator Ted Cruz Says the Gay Agenda Ends Christian Liberty
